PowerVM Enhancements PDF

Front cover
IBM PowerVM Enhancements

What is New in 2013
PowerVP and mobile CoD activations

explained
Shared Storage Pool

enhancements explained
Power Integrated Facility

for Linux described
Guillermo Corti
Sylvain Delabarre
Ho Jin Kim
Ondrej Plachy
Marcos Quezada
Gustavo Santos
ibm.com/redbooks
International Technical Support Organization
IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
May 2014
SG24-8198-00
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in
“Notices” on page xiii.
First Edition (May 2014)
This edition applies to Version 2.2, of IBM PowerVM Express Edition (5765-PVX), IBM PowerVM
Standard Edition (5765-PVS), IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition (5765-PVE), IBM PowerVM EE
Edition for Small Server (5765-PVD), IBM PowerVM for Linux Edition (5765-PVL), Hardware
Management Console (HMC) V7 Release 7.8.0, IBM Power 740 Firmware Level AL740-110, and
IBM Power 750 Firmware Level AL730-122.
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2014.

Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP
Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Now you can become a published author, too! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Chapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 IBM PowerVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 IBM PowerVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Power Integrated Facility for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 VIOS 2.2.3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 VIOS Performance Advisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.7 HMC feature updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.7.1 Considerations and prerequisites for HMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.7.2 HMC and Power Enterprise Pool interaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.7.3 HMC and IBM PowerVC interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 Planning for an IBM PowerVP installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 IBM PowerVP setup and usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.1 Installation instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 IBM PowerVP use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.3 Hands-on example demonstration with screen captures . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 3. Power Integrated Facility for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.1 Structure and fulfillment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.2 Supported systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.1 Compliance configuration examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. iii

3.2.2 Compliance Monitoring Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 4. Virtual I/O Server 2.2.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.1 Simplified SEA failover configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.2 Design overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.3 Usage considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.4 Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.5 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 SSP enhancements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.1 Shared Storage Pool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.2 Planning for SSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.2.3 Installing SSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.4 Setting up SSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.5 SSP management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.6 SSP troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 5. Virtual I/O Server Performance Advisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

5.1 VIOS Performance Advisor concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.2 Using the VIOS Performance Advisor tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.2.1 On-demand monitoring mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.2 Postprocessing mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3 VIOS Performance Advisor reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.1 Transferring the .xml file to a browser-capable PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.2 Advisory reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3.3 The system configuration advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.4 CPU (central processing unit) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.3.5 Shared Processing Pool advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.6 Memory advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3.7 I/O activities (disk and network) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3.8 Disk Drives advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.9 Disk adapter advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.10 Shared Storage Pool advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.3.11 Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 6. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

6.1 PowerVM Server Evacuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.2 Settings to improve Live Partition Mobility performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Abbreviations and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
iv IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Contents v
vi IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
Figures
2-1 IBM PowerVP data flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2-2 IBM PowerVP IBM i agent definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2-3 IBM PowerVP IBM i agent ready to install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2-4 IBM PowerVP Dashboard main window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2-5 PowerVP Dashboard partition details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2-6 GUI Dashboard - Main window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2-7 IBM PowerVP dashboard - Node 1 utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2-8 IBM PowerVP dashboard - Dedicated CPU LPAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2-9 IBM PowerVP Dashboard - Shared CPU pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2-10 PowerVP dashboard - LPAR CPU drill down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2-11 IBM PowerVP dashboard - LPAR Ethernet statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2-12 IBM PowerVP dashboard - LPAR hdisk statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3-1 Power IFL simplified offering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3-2 HMC Shared Processor Pool Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3-3 Power IFL activation scenario 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3-4 Power IFL activation scenario 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4-1 SEA simplified configuration example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4-2 Add virtual Ethernet adapter to VIOS1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4-3 Add virtual Ethernet adapter to VIOS2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4-4 SSP design overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4-5 SSP data flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4-6 SSP mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5-1 Advisory report information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5-2 VIOS Performance Advisor icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5-3 The system configuration advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5-4 CPU (central processing unit) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5-5 CPU Capacity status in report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5-6 Shared Processing Pool advisory report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5-7 Error on Shared Processing Pool monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5-8 Enable Shared Processor Pool monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5-9 Memory advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5-10 VIOS I/O Activity (disk and network) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5-11 VIOS - Disk Drives advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5-12 VIOS - Disk Adapters advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5-13 VIOS - Shared Storage Pool advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5-14 VIOS - Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) advisory report . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5-15 Expanded Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. vii

viii IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
Tables
1-1 Key features of IBM PowerVC editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

4-1 Cluster scaling in various versions of VIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4-2 Capacity and scaling parameters in the latest release of SSP . . . . . . . . . 55
4-3 Version 2.2.3 SSP requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6-1 VIOS requirement for a single migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6-2 VIOS requirement for up to 16 concurrent migrations (8 for each MSP) . 98
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. ix

x IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
Examples
2-1 IBM i agent installation check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2-2 IBM i manual agent installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4-1 SSP cluster -create command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4-2 Cluster status listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4-3 SSP cluster addnode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4-4 SSP cluster status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4-5 Using the chrepos command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4-6 SSP lscluster -i command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4-7 SSP lscluster -m command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4-8 SSP lscluster -d command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4-9 SSP lscluster -s command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4-10 SSp lsattr cluster command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4-11 lssrc -ls cthags command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4-12 SSP vio_daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4-13 SSP lscluster -c command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4-14 SSP cluster status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4-15 Using chrepos to replace a failed repository disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4-16 SSP clras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4-17 SSP clras sfwinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4-18 SSP dumprepos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5-1 The part command based on the .nmon file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6-1 Enabling Large Send Offload and Large Receive Offload . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6-2 Setting sendspace and recspace tunable parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6-3 Enabling Jumbo Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xi

xii IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
Notices
This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.
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PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR
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Any performance data contained herein was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the results
obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements may have been made on
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xiii

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xiv IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

Preface
IBM® Power Systems™ servers coupled with IBM PowerVM® technology are
designed to help clients build a dynamic infrastructure, helping to reduce costs,
manage risk, and improve service levels.
IBM PowerVM delivers industrial-strength virtualization for IBM AIX®, IBM i, and
Linux environments on IBM POWER® processor-based systems. IBM
PowerVM V2.2.3 is enhanced to continue its leadership in cloud computing
environments. Throughout the chapters of this IBM Redbooks® publication, you
will learn about the following topics:
򐂰 New management and performance tuning software products for PowerVM
solutions. Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) Performance Advisor has been enhanced
to provide support for N_Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV) and Fibre
Channel, Virtual Networking and Shared Ethernet Adapter, and Shared
Storage Pool configurations. IBM Power Virtualization Performance
(PowerVP™) is introduced as a new visual performance monitoring tool for
Power Systems servers.
򐂰 The scalability, reliability, and performance enhancements introduced with the
latest versions of the VIOS, IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility, and the
Hardware Management Console (HMC). As an example, this book goes
through the Shared Storage Pool improvements that include mirroring of the
storage pool, dynamic contraction of the storage pool, dynamic disk growth
within the storage pool, and scaling improvements.
This book is intended for experienced IBM PowerVM users who want to enable
2013 IBM PowerVM virtualization enhancements for Power Systems. It is
intended to be used as a companion to the following publications:
򐂰 IBM PowerVM Virtualization Introduction and Configuration, SG24-7940
򐂰 IBM PowerVM Virtualization Managing and Monitoring, SG24-7590
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xv

Authors
This book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working
at the International Technical Support Organization, Poughkeepsie Center.
Guillermo Corti is an IT Specialist at IBM Argentina. He has been with IBM

since 2004 and has a 20-year technical background on Power Systems and AIX.
He has a degree in Systems from Moron University. He also has 10 years
experience working in service delivery on Power Systems, AIX, VIOS, Linux, and
HMC for North American accounts.
Sylvain Delabarre is a Certified IT Specialist at the IBM Client and Power

Systems Linux Center in Montpellier, France. He has been with IBM France since
1988. He has worked as a Power Systems Benchmark Specialist since 2010. He
also has 20 years of AIX System Administration and Power Systems experience
working in service delivery, AIX, VIOS, and HMC support for EMEA.
Ho Jin Kim is a Senior Power Systems System Service Representative in IBM

Korea. He has been with IBM since 2001. He has a Masters degree in
Management Information Sciences from Hancock University of Foreign Studies.
He has supported Finance Sector accounts for seven years. He is a Red Hat
Certified Engineer and his areas of expertise include Power Systems solutions,
Linux on Power Systems, AIX, and PowerVM.
Ondrej Plachy is an IT System Engineer in Comparex CZ, s.r.o. He has 18 years

of experience in UNIX and storage systems. He holds the Ing. academic degree
in Computer Science from Czech Technical University (CVUT), Prague. He has
worked at IBM for nine years as part of the IBM AIX software services team.
Now, he is responsible for high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR) project
design, implementation, and the support of large-scale data center computer
systems in the Comparex company. Comparex is an IBM Business Partner in the
Czech Republic.
Marcos Quezada is a Consulting IT Specialist at IBM Latin America Advanced

Technical Support for Power Systems. He is an IBM Level II Certified IT
Specialist with 15 years of IT experience in several related positions as a Brand
Development Manager and as an IT Specialist at IBM Global Techline. He holds
a degree in Systems Engineering from Fundación Universidad de Belgrano,
Argentina. As a Consulting IT Specialist, he leads IBM teams in promoting IT and
POWER Architecture technologies to achieve buy-in from clients. He consults on
virtualization, cloud computing, and big data.
xvi IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

Gustavo Santos is an IT Architect at IBM Delivery Center Argentina. He has
been with IBM since 1997. He has 17 years of experience in Power Systems and
the UNIX field. He holds a degree in Systems Engineering from Universidad
Abierta Interamericana. He also has 15 years experience working in service
delivery on AIX, VIOS, and HMC for multiple accounts in the US and LA. His
areas of expertise include Power Systems, AIX, VIOS, and UNIX.
The project that produced this publication was managed by:

Scott Vetter, PMP
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Syed R Ahmed, Suman Batchu, Carl Bender, David Bennin, Bill Casey,
Ping Chen, Shaival Chokshi, Rich Conway, Michael Cyr, Robert K Gardner,
Yiwei Li , Nicolas Guérin, Stephanie Jensen, Manoj Kumar, P Scott McCord,
Nidugala Muralikrishna, Paul Olsen, Steven E Royer, Josiah Sathiadass,
Vasu Vallabhaneni, Bradley Vette.
Now you can become a published author, too!

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Find out more about the residency program, browse the residency index, and
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ibm.com/redbooks/residencies.html
Comments welcome
Your comments are important to us!
We want our books to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about

this book or other IBM Redbooks publications in one of the following ways:
򐂰 Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at:
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Preface xvii
򐂰 Send your comments in an email to:
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򐂰 Mail your comments to:
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xviii IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

1
Chapter 1. Introduction
This publication provides a summary of all the major IBM PowerVM and
Hardware Management Console (HMC) enterprise enhancements introduced in
the October 2013 announcement.
Before you continue, you need to be familiar with and have practical experience
with the contents in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IBM PowerVM
Virtualization Introduction and Configuration, SG24-7940, and IBM PowerVM
Virtualization Managing and Monitoring, SG24-7590.
This book was written so that you can go through the pages starting here or jump
to whatever subject interests you. The following chapters and sections of this
book are briefly introduced in this chapter:
򐂰 IBM Power Virtualization Center (IBM PowerVC)
򐂰 IBM Power Virtualization Performance (IBM PowerVP) for Power Systems
򐂰 Power Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL)
򐂰 Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) 2.2.3
򐂰 VIOS Performance Advisor
򐂰 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility
򐂰 Hardware Management Console (HMC) feature updates
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. 1

1.1 IBM PowerVC
IBM Power Virtualization Center (IBM PowerVC) is designed to simplify the
management of virtual resources in your Power Systems environment.
After the product code is loaded, IBM PowerVC’s no-menus interface will guide
you through three simple configuration steps to register physical hosts, storage
providers, and network resources. Then, it starts capturing and intelligently
deploying your virtual machines (VMs), among other tasks shown in the following
list:
򐂰 Create VMs and then resize and attach volumes to them.
򐂰 Import existing VMs and volumes so they can be managed by IBM PowerVC.
򐂰 Monitor the utilization of the resources that are in your environment.
򐂰 Migrate VMs while they are running (hot migration).
򐂰 Deploy images quickly to create new VMs that meet the demands of your
ever-changing business needs.
IBM PowerVC is built on OpenStack. OpenStack is open source software that

controls large pools of server, storage, and networking resources throughout a
data center.
IBM PowerVC is available in two editions:

򐂰 IBM Power Virtualization Center Express Edition
򐂰 IBM Power Virtualization Center Standard Edition
Table 1-1 shows an overview of the key features included with IBM PowerVC
Editions.
Table 1-1 Key features of IBM PowerVC editions

IBM Power Virtualization Center IBM Power Virtualization Center
Express Edition Standard Edition
򐂰 Supports IBM Power Systems hosts 򐂰 Supports IBM Power Systems hosts
that are managed by the Integrated that are managed by a Hardware
Virtualization Manager (IVM). Management Console (HMC).
򐂰 Supports storage area networks, local 򐂰 Supports storage area networks.
storage, and a combination in the 򐂰 Supports multiple VIOS VMs on each
same environment. host.
򐂰 Supports a single VIOS VM on each
host.
For more information about IBM PowerVC, see the IBM PowerVC Introduction
and Configuration, SG24-8199.
2 IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

1.2 IBM PowerVP
IBM Power Virtualization Performance (IBM PowerVP) for Power Systems is a
new product that offers a performance view into an IBM PowerVM virtualized
environment running on the latest firmware of IBM Power Systems. It is capable
of showing which virtual workloads are using specific physical resources on an
IBM Power Systems server.
IBM PowerVP helps reduce the time and complexity to find and display
performance bottlenecks through a simple dashboard that shows the
performance health of the system. It can help simplify both prevention and
troubleshooting and therefore reduce the cost of performance management.
1.3 Power Integrated Facility for Linux

With Power Integrated Facility (Power IFL), IBM is introducing an enterprise
Power Systems offering to consolidate or integrate Linux with AIX and IBM i
applications and data in large enterprise servers.
Power IFL takes advantage of the following aspects for clients willing to
consolidate Linux workloads on the POWER Architecture:
򐂰 Competitive pricing to add Linux to an enterprise Power System
򐂰 Scalable to 32 sockets with seamless growth
򐂰 Enterprise-class reliability and serviceability
1.4 VIOS 2.2.3

The VIOS has been enhanced with flexibility, scalability, and resiliency features in
the following areas:
򐂰 Shared Storage Pools
򐂰 Simplified Shared Ethernet Adapter
򐂰 Enhanced performance on Live Partition Mobility
Chapter 1. Introduction 3
1.5 VIOS Performance Advisor
The VIOS Performance Advisor tool provides advisory reports that are based on
key performance metrics from various partition resources collected from the
VIOS environment. This tool provides health reports that have proposals for
making configurational changes to the VIOS environment and to identify areas to
investigate further.
The VIOS Performance Advisor has been enhanced to provide support for
N_Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV) and Fibre Channel, Virtual Networking and
Shared Ethernet Adapter, and Shared Storage Pool configurations.
1.6 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility

PowerVM Live Partition Mobility enhancements include system evacuation and a
set of recommended settings to improve performance.
Server evacuation is a new feature that helps systems administrators to move all
the capable logical partitions (LPARs) from one system to another when
performing maintenance tasks and without disrupting business operations. This
enhancement supports Linux, AIX, and IBM i VMs.
Partition mobility performance is improved by installing the latest available

hardware firmware, Hardware Management Console (HMC), and VIOS software
on both the source and target partitions.
Both enhancements are part of the Hardware Management Console V7.7.8 and
no additional charge.
1.7 HMC feature updates

With release V7.7.8, the HMC is updated to include the following new functions:
򐂰 Support for Power Enterprise Pool management.
򐂰 IBM Power Virtualization Center Standard Edition enablement.
򐂰 User-defined thresholds to enable monitoring and alerting for workloads that
can benefit from the Dynamic Workload Optimizer (DWO), as well as optional
automation to invoke DWO when the threshold is exceeded. This function
includes DWO to indicate whether a virtual machine will benefit from DWO.

򐂰 Additional tracking of dynamic logical partition activity within the current
profile, which enables the reactivation of a virtual machine with all
configuration changes intact since the last shutdown.
򐂰 Improved group-based access control for Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP) users, which enables limiting users to a subset of HMCs.
1.7.1 Considerations and prerequisites for HMC

The following list shows the minimum requirements and prerequisites to update
the HMC and work with the new enhancements:
򐂰 The Power Enterprise Pools and DWO enhancements for HMC require the
HMC at firmware level 7.7.8, or later
򐂰 To be able to use and manage Power Enterprise Pools or to use with IBM
PowerVC, the HMC requires at least 2 gigabytes (GBs) of physical memory
The following HMC models cannot be upgraded to support this functionality and
HMC V7.7.8 is their last supported firmware level:
򐂰 7042-CR4
򐂰 7310-CR4
򐂰 7310-C05
򐂰 7310-C06
򐂰 7042-C06
򐂰 7042-C07
򐂰 7315-CR3
򐂰 7310-CR3
The new graphical user interface (GUI) functionality is automatically disabled.

The HMC operation then continues in legacy mode for HMC models with less
than 2 GB of memory.
1.7.2 HMC and Power Enterprise Pool interaction

The HMC can be used to perform the following functions:
򐂰 The Mobile Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CoD) processor and memory
resource activations can be assigned to systems with inactive resources.
Mobile CoD activations remain on the system to which they are assigned until
they are removed from the system.
򐂰 New systems can be added to the pool and existing systems can be removed
from the pool.
Chapter 1. Introduction 5
򐂰 New resources can be added to the pool or existing resources can be
removed from the pool.
򐂰 Pool information can be viewed, including pool resource assignments,
compliance, and history logs.
1.7.3 HMC and IBM PowerVC interaction

IBM PowerVC manages PowerVM virtualization environments through a set of
application programming interfaces (APIs) interacting with the HMC. These APIs
provide to the HMC the necessary instructions to manage the Power Systems
hardware, Power Hypervisor, and VIOS.

2
Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization

Performance
IBM Power Virtualization Performance (PowerVP) for Power Systems is a new
product that offers a performance view into the PowerVM virtualized
environment. It is capable of showing which virtual workloads are using specific
physical resources on an IBM Power Systems server.
It is a solution that helps reduce time and complexity to find out and display
performance bottlenecks. It presents to an administrator with a simple dashboard
showing the performance health of the system. It can help simplify both
prevention and troubleshooting and therefore reduce the cost of performance
management.
It assists you in the following way:

򐂰 Shows workloads in real time, highlighting possible problems or bottlenecks
(overcommitted resources)
򐂰 Helps to better use virtualized IBM Power System servers by showing the
distribution of the workload
򐂰 Replays saved historical data
򐂰 Helps with the resolution of performance-related issues
򐂰 Helps to proactively address future issues that can affect performance

IBM PowerVP is integrated with the PowerVM Hypervisor and collects
performance data directly from PowerVM Hypervisor, which offers the most
accurate performance information about virtual machines (VMs) running on IBM
Power Systems. This performance information is displayed on a real-time,
continuous graphical user interface (GUI) dashboard, and it is also available for
historical review.
IBM PowerVP offers these features:

򐂰 Real-time, continuous graphical monitor (dashboard) that delivers an
easy-to-read display that shows the overall performance health of the Power
server
򐂰 Customizable performance thresholds that enable you to customize the
dashboard to match your monitoring requirements
򐂰 Historical statistics that enable you to go back in time and replay performance
data sequences to find out performance bottlenecks
򐂰 System-level performance views that show all logical partitions (LPARs) and
VMs and how they use real system resources
򐂰 VM drill-down (in-depth view), which gives you more performance details for
each VM, displaying detailed information about various resources, such as
CPU, memory, and disk activity
򐂰 Support for all VM types, including AIX, IBM i, and Linux
򐂰 Background data collection, which enables performance data to be collected
when the GUI is not active
IBM PowerVP even allows an administrator to drill down to view specific adapter,
bus, or CPU usage. An administrator can see the hardware adapters and how
much workload is placed on them. IBM PowerVP provides both an overall and
detailed view of IBM Power System server hardware so that it is easy to see how
VMs are consuming resources.

2.1 Planning for an IBM PowerVP installation
IBM PowerVP is offered in a single standard edition. This edition is sold as a
stand-alone additional offering for PowerVM Standard Edition clients and is
included with PowerVM Enterprise Edition.
PowerVP has these prerequisites:

򐂰 IBM POWER7+™ and newer server models.
򐂰 IBM POWER7® C model servers.
򐂰 Firmware level 770, 780, or higher.
For more details about supported machine model types, visit this website:
https://www-304.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/power5cm/power7.html
Note: At the time of writing this book, the firmware was supported on the
following servers:
򐂰 8231-E1D (IBM Power 710 Express)
򐂰 8408-E8D (IBM Power 750)
򐂰 9109-RMD (IBM Power 760)
򐂰 9117-MMC (IBM Power 770)
򐂰 9179-MHC (IBM Power 780)
򐂰 8246-L1D (IBM PowerLinux 7R1)
򐂰 8246-L2D (IBM PowerLinux 7R2)
򐂰 8246-L1T (IBM PowerLinux 7R1)
򐂰 AIX operating system releases 6.1 and 7.1 are supported.

򐂰 VIOS versions are supported with the POWER7 and POWER7+ hardware.
򐂰 The Linux operating system releases, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.4
or later and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 or later, are supported.
򐂰 The IBM i operating system Release 7.1 with Technology Refresh 6 (TR6) is
supported. Program temporary fix (PTF) SI50350 for 5770SS1 is required.
This PTF has prerequisites and corequisites that will be included when you
order it.
Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization Performance 9

򐂰 The GUI client is supported on platforms where Java Swing applications are
supported. Installers are included for the following operating systems:
– Windows
– Linux
– AIX
– HPUX
– Mac OS X
– Solaris
– UNIX
– Basic Java
IBM Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.6.0 has been tested and is
supported.
򐂰 The GUI viewer can be installed in multiple clients, and multiple clients can
connect and view data simultaneously. However, each connected client adds
workload to the system while it requests performance data from the agents
every second.
򐂰 IBM PowerVP needs at least one of the LPARs on each Power Systems
server to be identified as a partition that will collect the system-wide
information for all partitions. This LPAR is also known as the system-level
agent. The other partitions are partition-level agents.
2.2 IBM PowerVP setup and usage

The IBM PowerVP agent is installed on the partitions on your POWER7
processor-based server. The partitions that you identify as the system-level
agents need to be installed first. If you want to view partition-specific information
for a partition, you also need to have the IBM PowerVP agent installed and
running on those partitions (referred to as partition-level agents).
The system-level agent also acts as a partition-level agent for the partition on
which it is running. The other partitions are then configured to point the
partition-level agent to the system-level agent using the TCP/IP host name of the
system-level agent partition. The partition-level agents need to connect to the
system-level agent, so the system-level agent needs to be running before the
partition-level agents can collect and provide partition-specific information. The
system-level agent also needs to be running for the GUI to display information
about the system and its partitions (Figure 2-1 on page 12).
The IBM PowerVP product installer is a graphical installer with a dialog. The
PowerVP GUI is installed only on the system where you run the installation.

The agent installation is done automatically for IBM i using Restore licensed
program (RSTLICPGM) with remote commands using the Java toolbox. The agent
installation for AIX and VIOS is packaged in the installp format. The installp
file set needs to be copied to the AIX partition to complete the installation. The
agent installation for Linux is packaged in the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)
format. The RPM packages need to be copied to the Linux partition to complete
the installation. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) can
be used to move the installation files to AIX, VIOS, or Linux partitions.
2.2.1 Installation instructions

The installation of the various components is described.
Graphical user interface (GUI)

Figure 2-1 on page 12 shows how individual components of IBM PowerVP are
connected together. The data flows in the following manner:
򐂰 The GUI reads data from the system agents on individual IBM Power System
servers. There can be up to two system agents on a server.
򐂰 The system agents read (pull) data from the IBM POWER Hypervisor™.
򐂰 The system agents collect data from the partition agents and, on request,
send them to the GUI.
򐂰 The partition agents push data to the system agents.

IBM Power Server A IBM Power Server B
AIX LPAR Linux LPAR
Partition Partition
agent agent
VIO VIO AIX AIX

SERVER SERVER LPAR1 LPAR2
System Partition System Partition
agent agent agent agent
POWER Hypervisor POWER Hypervisor
PowerVP
GUI
Workstation/LPAR
Figure 2-1 IBM PowerVP data flow
System agent
Follow these steps to get the system agent up and running:
1. Copy the installation package powervp.x.x.x.x.bff to a directory on the AIX
and VIOS VM. From that directory, run the following commands as root:
installp -agXd . powervp.rte
cd /tmp/gsk8
installp -acgqw -d /tmp/gsk8 GSKit*
/opt/ibm/powervp/iconfig Listen="* 13000" SystemLevelAgent=
The agent’s configuration file is configured by the previous iconfig command,
and it is in the following location:
/etc/opt/ibm/powervp/powervp.conf
2. To start the IBM PowerVP partition agent for the first time without rebooting,
run this command:
nohup /opt/ibm/powervp/PowerVP.sh &
After the next reboot, the agent is started automatically by the init script:
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/SPowerVP

Note: There is no need to run the IBM PowerVP partition agent on an LPAR
with the system agent installed. The system agent also collects the same
detailed statistics that the partition agent collects.
AIX partition agent

Follow these steps to get the AIX partition agent up and running:
1. Copy the installation package powervp.x.x.x.x.bff to a directory on the AIX
and VIOS VM. From that directory, run the following commands as root:
installp -agXd . powervp.rte
cd /tmp/gsk8
installp -acgqw -d /tmp/gsk8 GSKit*
2. To configure the partition agent to send data to the system agent (vioa2 in our
example), run this command:
/opt/ibm/powervp/iconfig Listen="* 13000" SystemLevelAgent=vioa2
The agent’s configuration file is configured by the previous iconfig command,
3. To start the PowerVP partition agent for the first time without rebooting, run
this command:
Linux partition agent

The prerequisites and the steps to get the Linux partition agent up and running
are described.
These prerequisites need to be installed on the Linux system before the agent
installation by running this command:
sysstat procps net-tools ethtool perf coreutils ksh
The following IBM PowerVP RPM files are needed on Linux systems:
򐂰 gskcrypt64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm
򐂰 gskssl64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm
򐂰 powervp-driver-*.ppc64.rpm (select the correct file that matches the Linux
distribution installed)
򐂰 powervp-x.x.x.x.ppc64.rpm

Follow these steps to complete the installation and activation of the agent:
1. Copy all of the necessary RPM files to a directory on the Linux system. Follow
these steps to list the installation requirements that are not met on the current
system (the example shows that we used RHEL 6.4 Linux):
rpm -qpR powervp-1.1.0-1.ppc64.rpm
powervp-driver-rhel6.4-2.6.32-358.el6.ppc64.rpm
gskcrypt64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm gskssl64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm
2. Install any dependencies that are not on the system, and then run the
following command to install the IBM PowerVP agent (RHEL 6.4):
rpm -i powervp-1.1.0-1.ppc64.rpm
powervp-driver-rhel6.4-2.6.32-358.el6.ppc64.rpm
gskcrypt64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm gskssl64-8.0.50.11.linux.ppc.rpm
3. To configure the partition agent to send data to the system agent (vioa2 in our
example), run this command:
/opt/ibm/powervp/iconfig Listen="* 13000" SystemLevelAgent=vioa2
The agent’s configuration file is configured by the previous iconfig command
4. To start the IBM PowerVP partition agent for the first time without rebooting,
run this command:
Note: If there is no powervp-driver RPM that matches the version of Linux that
is used, the source package powervp-driver-source-1.1.0-1.ppc64.rpm can
be installed. This package installs the necessary source package to build a
powervp-driver RPM on the current system. The files are unpacked in the
/opt/ibm/powervp/driver-source directory. From that directory, issue the
make command to build a powervp-driver RPM file for the current Linux
system. There are many necessary prerequisite packages when you build the
kernel modules. Consult the online documentation for the Linux prerequisites.

IBM i agent
The IBM i agent is installed automatically by the installation procedure of the IBM
PowerVP GUI or it can be installed later by running the PowerVP_IBMi_Agent.exe
agent installer. You need to configure the host name or IP address of the IBM i
server and the system administrator’s credentials to successfully install the IBM i
agent. Also, the system agent’s host name or IP address must be specified.
Figure 2-2 and Figure 2-3 on page 16 show examples of how an IBM i agent can
be configured from the GUI installer.
Figure 2-2 IBM PowerVP IBM i agent definition

Figure 2-3 IBM PowerVP IBM i agent ready to install
Use these commands to check whether the IBM i agent is successfully installed
(Example 2-1).
Example 2-1 IBM i agent installation check

GO LICPGM
Select option 10
Check the list for product 5765SLE
If you need to install the IBM i agent manually, use the following instructions in
Example 2-2.
Example 2-2 IBM i manual agent installation

Create a new savf on the IBM i system using:
CRTSAVF library/filename
FTP qsle.savf in binary mode to the savf created on IBM i system using:
put qsle.sav[library]/[filename]
Run:
RSTLICPGM LICPGM(5765SLE) DEV(*SAVF) SAVF(library/filename)
CALL QSLE/QPFICONFIG PARM(‘config-keyword=config-value’
‘config-keyword=config-value’)
2.2.2 IBM PowerVP use

Before your first use, understand the various functions of the GUI.

The sections of the IBM PowerVP GUI main window are shown in Figure 2-4 and
described:
򐂰 The System Information section provides information for the POWER7
system on which the system-level agent runs.
򐂰 The System Usage section provides system-wide performance information,
including a running graph of total CPU utilization.
򐂰 The Playback section provides the interface to record into a file the
information that the IBM PowerVP GUI is displaying.
򐂰 The Host Information section provides the systems to which the GUI is
connected and from which performance data is received.
System-wide statistics
The partition list at the top contains a line for every LPAR on the Power Systems
server. The first column indicates the partitions that can be “drilled down” to see
partition-specific performance information. The second column is the LPAR ID,
which matches the configuration in the HMC for the system. The third column
indicates whether the processors for the partition are Dedicated or Shared. The
fourth and fifth columns provide the Cores Entitled and Cores Assigned
(currently using) for the partition. The sixth column is a moving bar that indicates
the CPU utilization for the partition. An example of the IBM PowerVP main
window is in Figure 2-4.
Figure 2-4 IBM PowerVP Dashboard main window

The largest section is a graphical representation of Power Systems server
processors and buses. You see a box for each node on your system. Inside the
node boxes are smaller shaded boxes for each processor module on the node.
The lines between the processor modules are for the buses that connect the
processor modules to each other within the node. The lines between the nodes
are for the buses that connect the nodes to each other. The colors you see
indicate the level of utilization of the bus.
A new tab is displayed after you select a node, showing the in-depth (or a
drill-down view) hardware of the selected node. The larger boxes are the
processor modules within the node. Columns are in each processor module box
that indicate each of the CPU cores on the module. The utilization depicted in the
cores will change over time as performance statistics change, and possibly the
color will also change. The lines between the processor modules represent the
buses between the modules. The lines that run off the page represent the buses
to other nodes.
The boxes above and below the processor modules represent the I/O controllers
(also known as the GX controllers) with the lines to them representing the buses
from the processor modules to the controllers. Similarly, the boxes to both sides
represent the memory controllers (also known as the MC controllers) with the
lines to them representing the buses from the processor modules to the
controller. The colors of the lines can change based on the utilization of the
buses. The bus utilization is also shown as a percentage in the controller box.
For partitions with dedicated cores, you can click the LPAR line to show the cores
that are assigned to the partition. You can also click any of the cores to show
which LPAR is assigned to the core. If an LPAR or core is assigned to a shared
partition pool, these are all grouped together with the same color (usually blue)
because they cannot be differentiated. If you have active cores that are not
assigned to a dedicated partition or the shared pool, these cores can have CPU
utilization because they might be borrowed by partitions that need additional
processing power.

LPAR statistics
To select an individual LPAR, double-click one of the host names in the column.
An example of IBM PowerVP LPAR drill-down (in-depth view) is in Figure 2-5.
Figure 2-5 PowerVP Dashboard partition details
If you drill down to a specific LPAR, the following information is displayed. A new
tab is created that shows the partition detailed information. The bars represent
different performance metrics for that specific partition:
򐂰 The CPU column shows the CPU utilization for that partition as a percentage
of the entitled processor resources.
򐂰 The Disk Transfer Rate shows the rate of bytes read and written to disk. After
selecting a disk column, statistics for the individual disks for the LPAR in the
bottom half of the display will appear.
򐂰 The Total Ethernet column represents the rate of bytes sent and received on
the Ethernet. After selecting the network column, statistics for each Ethernet
adapter for the LPAR in the bottom half of the display will appear.

򐂰 The LSU CPI represents the cycles spent on Load/Store Unit resources for
the partition. This includes the whole memory hierarchy from local caches to
distant memory. If you click this column, you will see a breakdown of the LSU
CPI for the LPAR in the bottom half of the display. This information is retrieved
from the Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU) in the POWER hardware using
APIs on AIX, VIOS, and Linux, and using Performance Explorer (PEX) on IBM
i. On IBM i, a 30-second PEX collection is used; therefore, the columns
update every 30 seconds. On AIX, VIOS, and Linux, the collection interval is
shorter; therefore, the columns are updated more frequently.
򐂰 The FXU CPI represents the cycles spent on Floating Point execution for the
partition.
򐂰 The GCT CPI represents the cycles spent waiting on the Global Completion
Table (GCT) for the partition. The Global Completion Table is used for
pipelining Out Of Order execution.
2.2.3 Hands-on example demonstration with screen captures

The example screen captures in this section were taken on the following
demonstration environment:
򐂰 IBM PowerVP GUI running on a Microsoft Windows 7 workstation
򐂰 IBM PowerVP system agent running on AIX 7.1 TL2SP2 - LPAR (ID 4). LPAR
ID 4 was enabled to collect system statistics by the HMC administrator.
򐂰 IBM PowerVP partition agent running on AIX 7.1 TLSP2 - LPAR ID 5.
򐂰 The server hardware was IBM Power 795 (9119-FHB) with the following
features:
– Firmware Release AH780_028 (firmware version 770 or 780 is a
prerequisite of IBM PowerVP).
– There were 128 CPU cores in the machine. The cores were installed in
four books (nodes). Each book has four Single Chip Modules (SCMs).
Each SCM is equipped with eight POWER7 cores running at 4 GHz.
– Two TBs of memory are placed in four books and distributed over memory
banks.

When you make a new connection from IBM PowerVP GUI to a system agent
and the connection is established, you immediately see the window presented in
Figure 2-6. The dashboard is divided into several areas:
System information Shows basic information about server hardware
System usage Shows aggregated system usage (CPU) for all running
LPARs
Playback Displays record functions and playback functions
System information Shows the name of the server to which you are connected
through a system agent (demosystem)
Individual LPARs Shows each LPAR on a single line. There are many
LPARs in our demonstration machine.
Graphical view of the system
Shows that the system is configured with four processor
books (nodes) in our demonstration
Figure 2-6 GUI Dashboard - Main window

After clicking one of the nodes in the main graphical panel of the dashboard, IBM
PowerVP GUI drills down. You see the detailed information about the hardware
and a graphical representation of how heavily the individual components of the
node are used. In Figure 2-7, we can see a drill-down (in-depth view) into node 1
and the utilization level of its components. You can see the following information:
򐂰 Only one SCM module, module 2, is lightly used (CPU cores 0 and 7).
򐂰 Other SCMs are not used at the moment of capturing the image.
򐂰 Two memory banks of module 2 are slightly used.
򐂰 The bus between module 2 and module 0 is slightly used.
Figure 2-7 IBM PowerVP dashboard - Node 1 utilization

For LPARs running in dedicated mode, it is possible to see which CPUs are
assigned to that LPAR. Click a specific LPAR line in the upper-right section of the
dashboard and search through nodes to see which CPUs belong to that LPAR. In
our example in Figure 2-8, LPAR ID 7 uses all CPU cores from Node 2.
Figure 2-8 IBM PowerVP dashboard - Dedicated CPU LPAR

If you double-click an LPAR in shared CPU mode, all shared CPU LPARs in the
same shared pool are selected and you can see which CPUs in which nodes
belong to that shared processor pool. In Figure 2-9, the shared processor pool is
used by many LPARs and it is used by the Hypervisor on all cores from CPU
Module 2 (cores 0 - 7) of Node 1.
Figure 2-9 IBM PowerVP Dashboard - Shared CPU pool

For LPARs with a partition agent installed, you can drill down to the LPAR’s
statistics by double-clicking a specific LPAR in the upper-right area of the
dashboard. As shown in Figure 2-10, new statistics appear. In our example, the
system agent runs on LPAR ID 4 and partition agents run on LPAR IDs 4 and 5.
Figure 2-10 shows detailed statistics about the CPU of LPAR ID 4 (our system
agent).
Note: The IBM PowerVP system agent also behaves like a partition agent.
There is no need to run both system and partition agents on a single LPAR.
Only LPARs that do not run system agents need partition agents.
Figure 2-10 PowerVP dashboard - LPAR CPU drill down

It is also possible to display individual Ethernet adapter statistics as shown in
Figure 2-11.
Figure 2-11 IBM PowerVP dashboard - LPAR Ethernet statistics

It is also possible to display individual physical disk statistics inside an LPAR with
a partition agent as shown in Figure 2-12.
Figure 2-12 IBM PowerVP dashboard - LPAR hdisk statistics

3
Chapter 3. Power Integrated Facility for

Linux
Since 2000, IBM has continually invested in Linux on Power. With new initiatives,
such as PowerLinux Centers worldwide (Austin, TX; Beijing, China; Montpellier,
France; and New York, NY), IBM maintains its strong engagement on this
industry standard.
Power Integrated Facility for Linux is a flexible and affordable high-performance

capacity offering for Linux workloads.
With the Power Integrated Facility for Linux (Power IFL) offering, IBM brings the
industry-leading class Power platform closer to the Linux ecosystem. Power IFL
helps clients to consolidate operations and reduce overhead by using their
existing production systems and infrastructures.
Power IFL is available for Power 770, 780, and 795 servers with available
capacity on demand (CoD) memory and cores.

3.1 Structure and fulfillment
The Power IFL offering is meant to be simple and flexible. Here is a list of the
details for fulfillment:
򐂰 Each Power IFL feature delivers four processor and 32 GB memory
activations.
򐂰 Power IFL does not provide physical hardware (processor cards, books, or
nodes).
򐂰 The PowerVM for PowerLinux license is entitled for the Power IFL cores on
Power 770, 780, and 795 servers.
򐂰 The PowerVM for PowerLinux license entitlement and corresponding
Software Maintenance agreement (SWMA) can coexist with a PowerVM
Enterprise edition (EE) (for AIX and IBM i) license and an SWMA on a single
system.
򐂰 Power clients agree to segregate Power IFL cores in a separate virtual shared
processor pool from cores purchased to support AIX and IBM i.
Support is available through capacity on demand (CoD) activations. You can

enable additional cores for Linux and Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) partitions on
select Power Systems servers by ordering Feature Code (FC) ELJ0. In the
following sections, we describe the requirements and supported systems.
3.1.1 Requirements
Power IFL has the following requirements:
򐂰 Firmware level 780
򐂰 HMC Level Version 7, Release 7.8
3.1.2 Supported systems

Activations are available on Power 770, Power 780, and Power 795 servers with
the following models and types:
򐂰 9119-FHB
򐂰 9117-MMB
򐂰 9179-MHB
򐂰 9117-MMC
򐂰 9179-MHC
򐂰 9117-MMD
򐂰 9179-MHD

Ordering the FC ELJ0 Power IFL package automatically enables the following
feature codes:
򐂰 FC ELJ1 and FC ELJ4 = Four core activations
򐂰 FC ELJ2 = 32 GB memory activations
򐂰 FC ELJ3 = Four PowerVM for Linux entitlements
The Power IFL contract (form Z126-6230) must be signed by the client before the
order. This contract needs to be signed one time for each client enterprise per
country. The client agrees to run the system in a manner that isolates the Power
IFL cores in a separate virtual shared processor pool from the rest of the other
operating system cores.
Figure 3-1 shows a simple overview of the offering.
Previous offering Power IFL
4 Processor Activation 4 processor core

$ xxx per core activations
32 GB memory
32 GB Memory Act activations
$ xxx per GB
4 PowerVM for
4 x PowerVM EE PowerLinux
License entitlement License Entitlements
4 x Power VM EE 4 x PowerVM for

SWMA PowerLinux SWMA
Linux Subscription Linux Subscription

& Support & Support
Figure 3-1 Power IFL simplified offering
Note: If PowerVM Standard Edition is running on other cores, all cores will be
upgraded to PowerVM Enterprise Edition (5765-PVE) at the client’s expense.
Chapter 3. Power Integrated Facility for Linux 31

3.2 Configuration
The processing capacity of an IFL core must be used by Linux partitions only.
This capacity cannot be used to satisfy the licensed core requirement for the
VIOS, AIX, and IBM i partitions.
The number of general-purpose cores, and therefore the capability available for
AIX and IBM i partitions, is the total number of licensed activations minus any IFL
and VIOS activations.
It is possible to create an environment from the Hardware Management Console

(HMC) to ensure that a system is kept in compliance with these license
agreements. This can be achieved with a shared processor pool configuration.
Shared processor pools can be configured on the HMC as shown in Figure 3-2.
Figure 3-2 HMC Shared Processor Pool Management
Note: If an IFL core is enabled, this processing capacity must be used by

Linux partitions and cannot be used to satisfy the licensed core requirement
for VIOS, AIX, and IBM i partitions. Linux partitions can consume the capacity
provided by general-purpose cores, VIOS cores, and IFL cores.

3.2.1 Compliance configuration examples
In this section, we demonstrate two configuration examples. More configuration
examples and details are provided in the Power Systems Information Center
under the IBM POWER7 Systems™ section:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5
Power IFL activation scenario 1

Activation scenario 1 in Figure 3-3 shows a default of compliance according to
the Power IFL statement.
Dedicated
Dedicated Dedicated
Dedicated Dedicated
Decidated Shared
Shared Shared
Shared Shared
Shared Shared
Shared
LPAR11
LPAR LPAR22
LPAR LPAR33
LPAR LPAR 44
LPAR LPAR55
LPAR LPAR66
LPAR LPAR77
LPAR
VIOS
VIOS VIOS
VIOS
44 VPs
VPs 33 VPs
VPs 16 VPs
16 VPs 88VPs
VPs
11core
core 11core
core 10cores
10 cores Uncapped
Uncapped Uncapped
Uncapped Uncapped
Uncapped Uncapped
Uncapped
2.5PrU
2.5 PrU 1.5PrU
1.5 PrU 12PrU
12 PrU 88PrU
PrU
2 GB
2GB 2GB
2GB 64GB
64GB 64 GB
64GB 3 2GB
32GB 6 4GB
64GB 64 GB
64GB
Defaul tShared
Default Shared Pool
Pool
PowerVM Hypervisor
PowerVM Hypervisor
Figure 3-3 Power IFL activation scenario 1

The following points relate to scenario 1:
򐂰 Four Power IFLs are assigned to the default shared processor pool (16 cores
and 128 GB activations).
򐂰 The Power IFL cores are being added to the shared processor pool and
create two additional Linux partitions:
– Linux LPAR 6 has 16 uncapped virtual processors with 12 processing
units of entitlement.
– Linux LPAR 7 has eight uncapped virtual processors with eight processing
units of entitlement.
This configuration is out of compliance for its following aspects:

򐂰 The AIX and IBM i resource consumption exceeds the total number (16) of
the licensed cores:
– The total capacity available to the shared processor pool is seven
processors.
– Because the AIX shared partition is uncapped, it can consume up to four
physical cores of processing capacity.
– The IBM i is uncapped and can get up to three physical cores of
processing capacity.
– The VIOS and AIX dedicated partitions equal 12 processor cores.
򐂰 A total of 19 processor cores are available to AIX and IBM i.
Power IFL activation scenario 2

Figure 3-4 on page 35 shows an example method to solve the scenario 2 default
of compliance.

Dedicated Dedicated Dedicated Shared Shared Shared Shared
LPAR 1 LPAR 2 LPAR 3 LPAR 4 LPAR 5 LPAR 6 LPAR 7
VIOS VIOS
4 VPs 3 VPs 16 VPs 8 VPs

1 core 1 core 10 cores Uncapped Uncapped Uncapped Uncapped
2.5 E.C. 1.5 E.C. 12 E.C 8 E.C
2 GB 2GB 64GB 64 GB 3 2GB 6 4GB 64 GB
SharedPool01
4 max proc units Default Shared Poo l
PowerVM Hypervisor
Figure 3-4 Power IFL activation scenario 2
To solve the compliance issues from scenario 1, the following actions are in
place:
򐂰 The VIOS and dedicated AIX partition remains the same.
򐂰 The Maximum Processing Units for Shared Pool01 is set to 4 by way of the
Virtual Resources section on the HMC to prevent AIX and IBM i from
obtaining more than four physical processor cores of resources.
򐂰 The AIX and IBM i Shared LPARS are dynamically moved into the shared
processor pool SharedPool01 by way of the Partitions tab on the Shared
Processor Pool Management panel on the HMC.
򐂰 AIX, IBM i, and VIOS LPARs can only obtain a maximum of 16 cores.
3.2.2 Compliance Monitoring Assistance

The latest available Firmware 780 Service Pack 1 HMC version provides
notification through the HMC when the system is out of compliance with the
license agreement for the usage of IFL and VIOS core capacity.

The firmware periodically computes the possible maximum core consumption of
the various license types (AIX, IBM i, and VIOS). If a system is out of compliance,
a message panel is shown by the HMC to indicate that the system is not in
compliance with the license agreement.
It will be the system owner’s responsibility to bring the configuration back into
compliance.
Note: At the time of writing this book, the firmware performs a soft compliance
validation.

4
Chapter 4. Virtual I/O Server 2.2.3

This chapter describes new enhancements made to the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)
in 2013. Shared Storage Pools (SSPs) have been enhanced to improve flexibility,
scalability, and resiliency. These improvements include mirroring of the storage
pool, dynamic contraction of the storage pool, dynamic disk growth within the
storage pool, and scaling improvements. VIOS Performance Advisor has been
enhanced to provide support for N_Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV) and Fibre
Channel, Virtual Networking and Shared Ethernet Adapter, and SSP
configurations. The Shared Ethernet Adapter Failover configuration has been
simplified by removing the extra complexity when configuring a control channel.
Also, VIOS helps improve the Live Partition Mobility performance enhancement.
The main enhancements in 2013 are in the following areas:

򐂰 Simplified Shared Ethernet Adapter failover configuration setup
򐂰 SSP enhancements
򐂰 Shared Ethernet Adapter now, by default, uses the largesend attribute
򐂰 VIOS Performance Advisor enhancements (Chapter 5, “Virtual I/O Server
Performance Advisor” on page 79)
򐂰 Support for Live Partition Mobility performance enhancements (Chapter 6,
“PowerVM Live Partition Mobility” on page 95)

All the new 2013 features are included in VIOS Version 2.2.3. There are two
ways to update the level:
򐂰 Fresh installation from media (DVD)
򐂰 Upgrade from the previous version (updateios command). The update
packages can be downloaded from the IBM Fix Central website:
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral
From now on, the VIOS rootvg requires at least 30 GB of disk space. It is advised
that you protect the VIOS rootvg by a Logical Volume Manager (LVM) mirror or
hardware RAID. In correctly configured redundant VIOS environments, it is
possible to update VIOSs in sequence without interrupting client virtual machines
(VMs). Extra work might be required if client VMs are configured to use an LVM
mirror between logical unit numbers (LUNs) that are provided by dual VIOSs.

4.1 Simplified SEA failover configuration
The Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) is the PowerVM component used to bridge
the virtual networking to the physical network (physical network interface card).
The SEA allows the client LPARs with virtual adapters to share the physical
network resources with other LPARs and access the external network.
The PowerVM implementation of virtual networking takes place in both the Power
Hypervisor and VIOSs.
In this section, we describe the new method used for SEA failover configuration.
This enhancement is achieved by removing the requirement of a dedicated
control-channel adapter for each SEA configuration pair.
4.1.1 Requirements
The new simplified SEA failover configuration is dependent on the following
requirements:
򐂰 VIOS Version 2.2.3
򐂰 Hardware Management Console (HMC) 7.7.8
򐂰 Firmware Level 780 or higher
Note: At the time of writing this book, this feature is not supported on
hardware models MMB and MHB.
For more details about the supported machine model types, go to this website:
4.1.2 Design overview

The SEA was enhanced to make it easier to configure. The requirement has
been removed for a dedicated control-channel Ethernet adapter and a VLAN ID
for each SEA failover configuration.
The SEA failover still supports the traditional provisioning of the dedicated
control-channel adapter in SEA failover VIOSs. Existing SEA and SEA failover
functionality continues to work, which allows the existing SEA failover
configuration to migrate to the new VIOS. The new mechanism is supported
without making any configuration changes.
Chapter 4. Virtual I/O Server 2.2.3 39

By removing the requirement for a dedicated control channel for SEA pairs, the
SEA implements a new method to discover SEA pair partners using the VLAN ID
4095 in its virtual switch. After partners are identified, a new SEA high availability
(HA) protocol is used to communicate between them.
Multiple SEA pairs are allowed to share the VLAN ID 4095 within the same virtual
switch. We still can have only two VIOSs for each SEA failover configuration.
The new simplified SEA failover configuration relies the following dependencies:
򐂰 VLAN ID 4095 is a reserved VLAN for internal management traffic. POWER
Hypervisor 7.8 and higher have support for management VLAN ID 4095.
򐂰 The HMC ensures that the management VLAN ID 4095 is not user
configurable.
򐂰 The HMC also needs to ensure that the SEA priority value is either 1 or 2 so
that users do not configure more than two SEAs in a failover configuration.
Because the existing SEA failover configuration is still available, the following
method is used to identify a simplified configuration:
򐂰 The method to discover an SEA failover partner is decided based on user
input for the control channel (ctl_chan) attribute of the SEA device on the
mkvdev command.
򐂰 If the control-channel adapter is specified on the mkvdev command and the
specified adapter is not one of the trunk adapters of the SEA, a dedicated
control-channel adapter is specified.
򐂰 If no control-channel adapter is specified on the mkvdev command, the default
trunk adapter is the Port Virtual LAN Identifier (PVID) adapter of the SEA.
Partners are discovered using the new discovery protocol implementation
over the management VLAN ID 4095.
Important: The new implementation attempts to avoid miscommunication.

Nevertheless, it is not able to prevent users from configuring one SEA with a
dedicated control-channel adapter and the other SEA without the dedicated
control-channel adapter in the HA configuration.
The administrator must ensure that a consistent configuration approach is

used on both SEAs.

4.1.3 Usage considerations
To validate the simplified SEA failover partners’ configuration, use the following
steps:
򐂰 The SEA LPAR partners are identified by first comparing their PVIDs and then
comparing the additional VLANs they bridge. The PVID must be unique to
each SEA pair associated in the SEA failover configuration.
򐂰 If the PVID of the SEA in two different VIOSs matches, they are considered
partners. They are still considered partners if their PVIDs match but their
additional VLANs do not match. However, this is considered a transient
condition and an error is logged for the mismatch of the VLANs.
򐂰 The SEA failover pairs need to have identical sets of VLANs at all times. It is
possible to modify VLANs via the HMC (add or remove). This can create
mismatched VLANs between SEA LPARs. This needs to be a transient
condition only, and an error is logged in the VIOSs’ errlogs.
򐂰 If the SEA pair is configured with matching VLANs but their PVIDs are
different due to miscommunication, they are not considered SEA failover
partners even though they have a matching VLAN set. This indicates two
different VLAN IDs for untagged network traffic, which is a misconfiguration.
4.1.4 Migration
Migration from the current SEA to the simplified SEA configuration without a
dedicated control channel requires a network outage. It is not possible to remove
the dedicated control-channel adapter dynamically at run time.
The SEA must be in a defined state before you can remove the dedicated
control-channel adapter. This is necessary to avoid any condition that leads to an
SEA flip-flop or both SEAs bridging.
An update of the firmware to level 7.8 or a higher version is required to take

advantage of the new discovery protocol. This firmware update from a lower
service release is a disruptive update and requires a network outage.
4.1.5 Examples
The new syntax for the mkvdev command authorizes you to use the ha_mode
parameter without specifying any control-channel adapter.

We do not have to specify any extra control-channel adapter, and the SEA
configuration uses the new protocol to identify its partner with the VLAN 4095.
The new command syntax is shown:
mkvdev -sea TargetDevice -vadapter VirtualEthernetAdapter -default
DefaultVirtualEthernetAdapter -defaultid SEADefaultPVID -attr
ha_mode=auto
Figure 4-1 is an example of a simplified SEA configuration.
VIOS1 AIX IBM i Linux VIOS

en9 en14
(if.) (if.)
ent9 Default en0 ETH01 Default ent14

eth0
(sea) PVID=1 (if.) (if.) PVID=1 (sea)
Default
Default
ent14 ent8 ent0 CMN01 eth0 ent8 ent13
(phy.) (virt.) (virt.) (virt.) (virt.) (virt.) (phy.)
PVID=1
PVID=1
PVID=1
PVID=1
PVID=1
VLAN 4095 control channel
HYPERVISOR
VLAN=1 VLAN=1
External
Ethernet switch Network
Figure 4-1 SEA simplified configuration example

Follow these steps:
1. Add the virtual Ethernet adapter with PVID 144 with a slot number 144 to
VIOS1 from the HMC as shown in Figure 4-2 by using a dynamic logical
partitioning operation.
Figure 4-2 Add virtual Ethernet adapter to VIOS1
2. We must identify the new virtual adapter from VIOS1 with the lsdev
command. We create the SEA adapter with the mkvdev command using the
physical Ethernet adapter ent14. The SEA adapter ent9 is created:
$ lsdev -dev ent* -vpd|grep C144|grep ent
ent8 U9119.FHB.5102806-V1-C144-T1 Virtual I/O
Ethernet Adapter (l-lan)
$ mkvdev -sea ent14 -vadapter ent8 -default ent8 -defaultid 144
-attr ha_mode=auto
ent9 Available
en9
et9
3. We verify that ent9 is now the primary adapter with the errlog command:
$ errlog
IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP T C RESOURCE_NAME DESCRIPTION
E48A73A4 1104235213 I H ent9 BECOME PRIMARY

4. Add the virtual Ethernet adapter with PVID 144 with a slot number 144 to
VIOS2 from the HMC as shown in Figure 4-2 on page 43 using a dynamic
logical partitioning operation.
Figure 4-3 Add virtual Ethernet adapter to VIOS2
5. We must identify the new virtual adapter from VIOS2 with the lsdev
command. We create the SEA adapter with the mkvdev command using the
physical Ethernet adapter ent8. The SEA adapter ent14 is created:
$ lsdev -dev ent* -vpd|grep C144|grep ent
ent13 U9119.FHB.5102806-V2-C144-T1 Virtual I/O
Ethernet Adapter (l-lan)
$ mkvdev -sea ent8 -vadapter ent13 -default ent13 -defaultid 144
-attr ha_mode=auto
ent14 Available
en14
et14
6. We check that ent14 is now the backup adapter with the errlog command:
$ errlog
1FE2DD91 1104165413 I H ent14 BECOME BACKUP
7. We verify that VIOS2 can fail over by putting the VIOS1’s SEA adapter in
standby mode with the chdev command and check the errlog entry:
chdev -dev ent9 -attr ha_mode=standby
$ errlog
1FE2DD91 1104235513 I H ent9 BECOME BACKUP

8. The VIOS2’s SEA adapter is now the primary adapter:
$ errlog
9. We also check the current primary and backup adapters with the entstat
command on both VIOSs:
– VIOS1:
$ entstat -all ent9|grep Active
Priority: 1 Active: False
Priority: 1 Active: False
– VIOS2:
$ entstat -all ent14|grep Active
Priority: 2 Active: True
Priority: 2 Active: True
10.We return to the initial state with the chdev command one more time:
chdev -dev ent9 -attr ha_mode=auto
11.We monitor the SEA failover state from the entstat command and search for
the “High Availability Statistics” stanza. We confirm that this SEA is
using VLAN ID 4095 as its control channel and verify the current primary
bridging adapter:
– VIOS1:
$ entstat -all ent9
../..
High Availability Statistics:
Control Channel PVID: 4095
Control Packets in: 1306
Control Packets out: 1121
Type of Packets Received:
Keep-Alive Packets: 910
Recovery Packets: 1
Notify Packets: 1
Limbo Packets: 0
State: PRIMARY
Bridge Mode: All
Number of Times Server became Backup: 1
Number of Times Server became Primary: 2
High Availability Mode: Auto
Priority: 1

– VIOS2:
$ entstat -all ent14
../..
High Availability Statistics:
Control Channel PVID: 4095
Control Packets in: 887
Control Packets out: 1333
Type of Packets Received:
Keep-Alive Packets: 466
Recovery Packets: 1
Notify Packets: 1
Limbo Packets: 0
State: BACKUP
Bridge Mode: None
Number of Times Server became Backup: 2
Number of Times Server became Primary: 1
High Availability Mode: Auto
Priority: 2
4.2 SSP enhancements

The Shared Storage Pool (SSP) functionality included in VIOS is constantly
enhanced. VIOS Version 2.2.3 includes the latest (2013) improvements, which
are also referred to as Release 4 of SSP.
In the latest release of VIOS Version 2.2.3, the SSP functionality has been
further enhanced in the following areas:
򐂰 Pool resiliency is enhanced by mirroring the storage pool (two failover groups)
򐂰 Pool shrink is enhanced by allowing the dynamic contraction of the storage
pool by removing a physical volume
򐂰 Dynamic disk growth within the storage pool
򐂰 Scaling improvements with more client VMs supported and larger physical
volumes in the pool
򐂰 New lu and pv commands
򐂰 New failgrp command
򐂰 Cluster-wide operations performed concurrently

As a reference, the following list includes VIOS Version 2.2.2 enhancements:
򐂰 Rolling updates that allow software updates to be applied sequentially to the
VIOSs without needing to stop the whole cluster
򐂰 Repository resiliency that allows the cluster to remain operational even
though the repository disk has failed. While the repository disk is in the failed
state, configuration changes to the cluster cannot be made, but the cluster
remains operational for client VMs. Also, the repository disk can be replaced.
򐂰 Virtual Network VLAN tagging support in the cluster
4.2.1 Shared Storage Pool

A Shared Storage Pool (SSP) is a server-based storage virtualization clustered
solution and is an extension of existing storage virtualization options on the
VIOS. An SSP can simplify the aggregation of large numbers of disks. It also
allows better utilization of the available storage by using thin provisioning. The
thinly provisioned device is not fully backed by physical storage if the data block
is not actually in use. Thick (or full) provisioning is also available. The SSP also
provides a good storage setup for Live Partition Mobility.
Figure 4-4 on page 48 provides a high-level overview of SSP functionality.

Shared Storage Pool Cluster
IBM Power Server A IBM Power Server B
VIO SERVER VIO SERVER VIO SERVER VIO SERVER
Cluster
Aware
AIX
infarstructure
CAA CAA CAA CAA
LUN Mirror A (Failgroup) Mirror B (Failgroup)

sync
LUN LUN LUN LUN

Shared Storage Pool
repository disk
Shared Storage Pool
Figure 4-4 SSP design overview
An SSP usually spans multiple VIOSs. The VIOSs constitute a cluster that is
based on Cluster Aware AIX (CAA) technology in the background. A cluster
manages a single SSP. After the physical volumes are allocated to the SSP
environment, the physical volume management tasks, such as capacity
management, are performed by the cluster. Physical storage that becomes part
of the SSP in these VIOSs is no longer managed locally.
SSPs provide the following benefits:

򐂰 Simplify the aggregation of large numbers of disks across multiple VIOSs
򐂰 Improve the utilization of the available storage
򐂰 Simplify administration tasks
򐂰 Provides global view of the storage across all VIOSs in the cluster
򐂰 Provides simple and error proof environment for Live Partition Mobility

SSP storage access
When using SSPs, the VIOS provides storage through logical units (LUs) that are
assigned to client partitions. A logical unit (LU) is a file backed storage device
that resides in the cluster file system in the SSP. It is mapped over a vSCSI
adapter pair to a client virtual machine and it appears as a virtual SCSI disk in
the client VM.
Dual VIOS configuration for high resiliency is supported. An LU can be

propagated to a VM by multiple VIOSs and the client VM will access it by native
MPIO driver.
Figure 4-5 shows how data is accessed from client VM through all layers to the
physical storage.
IBM Power Systems Server 1 IBM Power Systems

Server 2
AIX LPAR Linux LPAR
AIX LPAR
hdisk0 sda
hdisk0
vSCSI
Dual VIOS vSCSI
configuration VIOSes that are
is supported VIO SERVER VIO SERVER VIO SERVER
part of SSP cluster
can provide LUs to
client LPARS
SSP cluster as vSCSI disks
SAN SAN SAN
Shared Storage Pool

Failure Group A
LUs are spread
PVA0 PVA1 across PVs
LU1
in a pool in chunks
LU2
LU3
Individual chunks
(can be mirrored)
Physical LUNs
are PVs in VIOS
Storage
A
LUN0 LUN1 storage arrays
(can be redundant)
Figure 4-5 SSP data flow
The virtual SCSI disk devices exported from the SSP support SCSI persistent
reservations. These SCSI persistent reservations persist across (hard) resets.
The persistent reservations supported by a virtual SCSI disk from the SSP
support all the required features for the SCSI-3 Persistent Reserves standard.

Note: Because IBM AIX operating system does not support full SCSI-3
persistent reserve capabilities, SSP implements additional options.
PR_exclusive and PR_shared options are added to the reserve policy for
virtual SCSI disk devices. The PR_exclusive is a persistent reserve for
exclusive host access, and the PR_shared is a persistent reserve for shared
host access. SSP technology provides functionality for these options.
SSP failure groups

Mirroring an SSP is a new feature in VIOS Version 2.2.3. Mirroring an SSP is an
optional step that increases resiliency by adding redundancy.
Inside the storage pool, there might be two sets of shared LUNs (physical
volumes (PVs)). These two named sets of LUNs are referred to as failure groups
or mirrors. The preferred practice is to define those two failure groups on
different physical storage arrays for best availability.
The whole pool is either a single copy pool (one failure group) or double copy
(two failure groups). If two failure groups are defined, the whole pool is mirrored,
not just individual logical units (LUs) of PVs. Data space that belongs to an LU is
divided into 64 MB chunks each and they are placed into individual physical
volumes (LUNs) in the pool. The exact data placement is decided in the
background; therefore, it is not exact physical one-to-one mirroring (like RAID1,
for example).
By default, a single copy pool is created by the cluster -create command with
first failure group named Default. It is possible to rename the first failure group to
an arbitrary name and add a second failure group.
Consider the following characteristics of mirrored SSP:

򐂰 It doubles the disk space requirement, which is typical for Disaster Recovery
(DR) solutions.
򐂰 It is completely transparent for client VMs; therefore, there is no action
needed on the client operating system. VIOS does all the work to access
storage and to keep mirrors in a synchronized state. It duplicates writes to
both mirrors and does re-mirroring if one of the mirrors becomes out-of-sync.
򐂰 VIOS performs recovery and re-mirroring automatically in the background
without affecting the client VMs.

The following preferred practices relate to mirrored storage pools:
򐂰 Failure groups need to be kept the same size. If there are two failure groups in
an SSP and their capacity is not the same, the total size of the SSP available
for allocation of LUs is the sum of capacity of LUNs that are in the smaller
failure group. The rest of the capacity in the larger failure group is not used.
򐂰 When creating a large mirrored pool with two failure groups, the preferred
practice is to create a pool of one disk and add the second failure group to
mirror the pool. After that, you can add physical volumes to both failure
groups to increase the capacity of the pool.
򐂰 If a disk or a storage controller in a single failure group fails, the mirrored
storage pool is running in a degraded state. Corrective actions to resolve the
issue on the storage controller need to be taken.
򐂰 For the best mirroring performance, upgrade system firmware to the latest
release.
Figure 4-6 shows the placement and flow of data when you use SSP mirroring.
Shared Storage Pool
Synchronized
automaticaly
Failure Group A Failure Group B
PVA0 PVA1 PVA0 PVA1

LU1 COPY
LU2 COPY
Physical Storage Array A Physical Storage Array B
Figure 4-6 SSP mirroring

Clustering model
The underlying technology for clustering in an SSP is provided by the Cluster
Aware AIX (CAA) component. Each VIOS that is part of a cluster represents a
cluster node.
The storage in an SSP is managed by the cluster and a distributed data object
repository with a global namespace. The distributed data object repository uses
a cluster file system that has been enhanced specifically for the purpose of
storage virtualization using the VIOS. The distributed object repository is the
foundation for advanced storage virtualization features, such as shared access,
thin provisioning, and mirroring.
The VIOS clustering model is based on Cluster Aware AIX (CAA) and Reliable
Scalable Cluster Technology (RSCT). CAA is a toolkit for creating clusters. A
reliable network connection is needed between all the VIOSs that are in the
cluster. On the VIOS, the poold daemon handles group services. The vio_daemon
is responsible for monitoring the health of the cluster nodes and the pool, as well
as the pool capacity.
CAA provides a set of tools and APIs to enable clustering on the AIX operating
system (which is the base of the VIOS appliance). CAA does not provide the
application monitoring and resource failover capabilities that IBM PowerHA®
System Mirror provides. Other software products can use the APIs and
command-line interfaces (CLIs) that CAA provides to cluster their applications
and services.
The following products use the CAA technology:

򐂰 RSCT (3.1 and later)
򐂰 PowerHA (7.1 and later)
򐂰 VIOS SSP (since 2.2.0.11, Fix Pack (FP) 24, Service Package (SP) 01)
Each cluster based on CAA requires at least one physical volume for the
metadata repository. All cluster nodes in a cluster must see all the shared disks -
both repository disk and storage disks. Therefore, the disks need to be zoned
and correctly masked on the storage array to all the cluster nodes that are part of
the SSP. All nodes can read and write to the SSP. The cluster uses a distributed
lock manager to manage access to the storage.
Nodes that belong to a CAA cluster use the common AIX HA File System
(AHAFS) for event notification. AHAFS is a pseudo file system used for
synchronized information exchange; it is implemented in the AIX kernel
extension.

CAA features
CAA offers these features:
򐂰 Central repository (repository disk - caavg_private volume group)
򐂰 Quorumless (CAA does not require a quorum to be up and operational.)
򐂰 Monitoring capabilities for custom actions
򐂰 Fencing for these areas:
– Network
– Storage
– Applications
򐂰 Deadman switch (DMS). A deadman switch is an action that occurs when
CAA detects that a node is isolated in a multinode environment. No network
or disk communication occurs between nodes. Implement the DMS to protect
the data on the external disks.
򐂰 CAA DMS tunable (deadman_mode) allows two actions:
– Assert (crash) the system - default setting
– Generate an AHAFS event
AIX HA File System

AIX HA File System (AHAFS) is implemented as a kernel extension. AHAFS is
mounted on /aha. It can monitor predefined and user-defined system events.
AHAFS automatically notifies registered users or processes about the
occurrences of the following types of events:
򐂰 Modification of content of a file
򐂰 Usage of a file system that exceeds a user-defined threshold
򐂰 Death of a process
򐂰 Change in the value of a kernel tunable parameter
AHAFS offers these key features:

򐂰 No new API for monitoring events is needed. The monitoring applications just
need to use the existing file system interfaces (for example, open(), write(),
select(), read(), and close()).
򐂰 The same event can be monitored by many users or processes, each with a
different threshold.
򐂰 Different levels of information can be extracted by the different users or
processes upon the occurrence of an event.
򐂰 Any component or subcomponent in the kernel space, including kernel
extensions and device drivers, can register its own event producers to AHAFS
to enable the monitoring of its events.

CAA reports the following events via AHAFS:
򐂰 Node/host: nodeList, nodeState, nodeContact, linkedCl, and nodeAddress
(see /aha/cluster)
򐂰 Network: networkAdapterState (see /aha/cluster)
򐂰 Disk: diskState, clDiskList, clDiskState, repDiskState, and vgState (see
/aha/disk)
4.2.2 Planning for SSPs

SSP clustering is continuously enhanced. In the latest version of VIOS 2.2.3,
SSP supports larger disks in the pool and for more client VMs. Also, the
underlying cluster infrastructure is changed. Cluster communication has been
changed from multicast to unicast; therefore, cluster setup has been simplified
and made less error-prone.
Table 4-1 lists the historical development of SSP cluster scalability.
Table 4-1 Cluster scaling in various versions of VIOS

SSP release VIOS version Maximum number of
nodes in cluster
1 2.2.0.11, Fix Pack 24, 1

Service Pack 1, and
2.2.1.0
2 2.2.1.3 4
3 2.2.2.0 16
4 2.2.3.0 16
Table 4-2 on page 55 lists the differences in various SSP parameters to previous
versions of SSP.

Table 4-2 Capacity and scaling parameters in the latest release of SSP
Maximum value VIO 2.2.2 (SSP Release 3) VIO 2.2.3 (SSP Release 4)
Number of VIOS nodes in 16 16

cluster
Number of physical disks 1024 1024

in pool
Number of virtual disks 8192 8192

(LUs) mappings in pool
Number of client LPARs 200 250

per VIOS node
Capacity of physical disks 4 TB 16 TB

in pool
Total storage capacity of 512 TB 512 TB

storage pool
Maximum capacity of a 4 TB 4 TB
virtual disk (LU) in pool
Number of repository disks 1 1
Table 4-3 on page 56 lists the requirements for installation and the use of the
latest version of SSP functionality.

Table 4-3 Version 2.2.3 SSP requirements
Category Required
Server hardware IBM POWER6®, POWER7, or POWER7+

server or blade
Firmware No requirement but the latest firmware

(770 or 780) improves the performance of
mirrored writes in an SSP pool
HMC 7.7.4 and later for a graphical interface to

the VIOS
VIOS LPAR CPU 1 (Entitlement or Dedicated)
VIOS LPAR memory 4 GB
Adapter At least one Fibre Channel adapter
Disks Shared disks from SAN-attached storage:

򐂰 One for repository xx GB
򐂰 Other LUNs for SSP data (at least
one)
For storage hardware that is supported in VIOS, see this website:

http://bit.ly/1oIPmLS
4.2.3 Installing SSPs

There are no specific steps to install the SSP feature because it is an internal
feature of VIOS 2.2.3. Therefore, after the standard installation of VIOS 2.2.3, the
SSP feature is immediately available.
4.2.4 Setting up SSPs

To set up a cluster, there must be at least one reliable network connection
between all VIOSs that will become part of the cluster. Also, there must be one
SAN LUN accessible from all VIOSs that will be used as the cluster repository.

If the Domain Name System (DNS) server is in place, the name resolution needs
to use local resolution first. The order of name lookup can be configured in the
/etc/netsvc.conf file (must be edited as root). The host table for local name
resolution, /etc/hosts, needs to be correctly configured with the long names of
all the VIOSs that will be part of the cluster. Both forward resolution and reverse
resolution need to work correctly. It is advised to synchronize the clock among all
VIOSs by Network Time Protocol (NTP). The Shared Ethernet Adapter (if used)
must be in the default threaded mode.
If all previous setup steps are completed and all the planning requirements that
are described in 4.2.2, “Planning for SSPs” on page 54 are met, it is possible to
create a cluster using the cluster command. The initial cluster setup can take
time. There is not much feedback on the window while the cluster is being
created.
Example 4-1 SSP cluster -create command

cluster -create -clustername SSP -repopvs ssprepohdisk0 -spname SSPpool
-sppvs sspmirrahdisk0 -hostname vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com
Cluster SSP has been created successfully.
Note: In the previous example and all the following examples in this chapter,
we use custom logical names of physical disks. It is for the convenience of the
administrator to have both consistent and meaningful logical device names
across the entire cluster. The renaming is done by running the rendev
command (as root). This step is optional and not necessary in cluster
configuration:
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# rendev -l hdisk6 -n ssprepohdisk0
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# rendev -l hdisk7 -n sspmirrahdisk0
We can check whether the cluster is defined successfully by using the cluster
-status and lscluster -d commands as shown in Example 4-2.
Example 4-2 Cluster status listing

$ cluster -status -clustername SSP
Cluster Name State
SSP OK
Node Name MTM Partition Num State Pool State

vioa1 8205-E6C0206A22ER 1 OK OK
$ lscluster -d
Storage Interface Query
Cluster Name: SSP

Cluster UUID: a8035a02-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
Number of nodes reporting = 1
Number of nodes expected = 1
Node vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com
Node UUID = a806fb6c-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
Number of disks discovered = 2
sspmirrahdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002404214503IBMfcp
uUid : 8290a634-5275-645d-9203-478a0e090ee1
Site uUid : a8028ac8-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
uUid : 7fbcc0ec-e0ec-9127-9d51-96384a17c9d7
Type : REPDISK
If everything works well, all defined disks are visible, the cluster is in an OK state,
all disks are UP, we can continue adding nodes (Example 4-3).
Example 4-3 SSP cluster addnode
vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ cluster -addnode -clustername SSP

-hostname vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com
Partition vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com has been added to the SSP cluster.
And again, check the status (Example 4-4).
Example 4-4 SSP cluster status

$ cluster -status -clustername SSP
Cluster Name State
SSP OK


4.2.5 SSP management
Commands that were added or enhanced in the last version of SSP are
described.
New lu command
The new lu command is introduced to simplify the management of the logical
units within an SSP. By using the lu command, various operations, such as
create, map, unmap, remove, and list, can be performed on logical units in an
SSP.
The following list shows various flags of the lu command and examples of its
usage:
򐂰 -create creates a new logical unit. By default, a thin-provisioned logical unit is
created. Use the -thick option to create a thick-provisioned logical unit. Use
the -map flag to map an existing logical unit to a virtual SCSI adapter. An
example of the usage follows:
$ lu -create -clustername SSP -sp SSPpool -lu vmaix10_hd0 -size 20G
Lu Name:vmaix10_hd0
Lu Udid:461b48367543c261817e3c2cfc326d12
򐂰 -list displays information about the logical units in the SSP. Use the
-verbose option to display the detailed information about logical units. An
example of the usage follows:
$ lu -list
POOL_NAME: SSPpool
TIER_NAME: SYSTEM
LU_NAME SIZE(MB) UNUSED(MB) UDID
vmaix10_hd0 20480 20481
461b48367543c261817e3c2cfc326d12
򐂰 -map maps an existing LU to the virtual target adapter. An example of the
usage follows:
$ lu -map -clustername SSP -sp SSPpool -lu vmaix10_hd0 -vadapter
vhost8 -vtd vtd_vmaix10_hd0
Assigning logical unit 'vmaix10_hd0' as a backing device.
VTD:vtd_vmaix10_hd0
򐂰 -unmap unmaps an existing LU but does not delete it. An example of the
usage follows:
$ lu -unmap -clustername SSP -sp SSPpool -lu vmaix10_hd0
vtd_vmaix10_hd0 deleted

򐂰 -remove removes the logical units from the SSP. To remove all the logical
units, the optional flag -all can be used. An example of the usage follows:
$ lu -remove -clustername SSP -sp SSPpool -lu vmaix10_hd0
Logical unit vmaix10_hd0 with udid
"461b48367543c261817e3c2cfc326d12" is removed.
Important warning: Using the option -all will immediately delete all LUs
in the pool even if they are mapped to a VM.
New pv command
The new pv command is introduced to manage the physical volumes (shared
SAN LUNs) within an SSP. By using the pv command, various operations, such
as add, add to a failure group, replace, remove, and list, can be performed on
physical volumes in an SSP:
򐂰 -list lists physical volumes in an SSP and their Universal Disk Identification
(UDIDs), for example:
$ pv -list
POOL_NAME: SSPpool
TIER_NAME: SYSTEM
FG_NAME: Default
PV_NAME SIZE(MB) STATE UDID
sspmirrahdisk0 51200 ONLINE
33213600507680191026C4000000000000~
򐂰 -list -capable lists the physical volumes that can be added to an SSP. The
physical volumes that are accessible on all VIOSs across the entire cluster
that are not part of the SSP will be listed. Also, UDIDs of those physical
volumes will be listed:
$ pv -list -capable
PV_NAME SIZE(MB) UDID
sspmirrahdisk1 51200
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
sspmirrbhdisk0 51200
33213600507680191026C400000000000002604214503IBMfcp
sspmirrbhdisk1 51200
33213600507680191026C400000000000002704214503IBMfcp
򐂰 -add adds physical volumes to one or more failure groups in an SSP. When a
disk is added to a storage pool, chunks that belong to already existing LUs in
the pool are automatically redistributed in the background:
pv -add -fg MIRRA: sspmirrahdisk1 MIRRB: sspmirrbhdisk1
Given physical volume(s) have been added successfully.

򐂰 -remove removes physical volumes from an SSP. This reduces the capacity of
the storage pool. This is a long running operation. The physical volume needs
to be reused only after this operation completes successfully. An example
follows:
$ pv -remove -clustername SSP -sp SSPpool -pv sspmirrahdisk1
Given physical volume(s) have been removed successfully.
򐂰 -replace replaces physical volumes in an SSP:
$ pv -replace -oldpv sspmirrahdisk0 -newpv sspmirrahdisk1
Current request action progress: % 5
Current request action progress: % 100
Given physical volume(s) have been replaced successfully.
New failgrp command

The failgrp command is used to manage the failure groups within an SSP. A
failure group (a mirror) is a set of physical volumes that are treated as a single
point of failure by the system. By using the failgrp command, various
operations, such as create, remove, modify, and list, can be performed on the
failure groups. When an SSP is created by using the cluster -create command,
a single default failure group is created. A new failure group can later be created
by using the failgrp command.
The following operations are performed by the failgrp command:

򐂰 -create creates a second failure group, which is a new failure group that
mirrors the data in a default failure group. Ensure that the total capacity of the
new failure group that is created is equal to or more than the capacity of the
default failure group. An example follows:
$ failgrp -create -fg MIRRB: sspmirrbhdisk0
MIRRB FailureGroup has been created successfully.
򐂰 -remove removes a failure group from the SSP. Only one mirror copy of the
data is removed. An example follows:
$ failgrp -remove -fg MIRRB
MIRRB FailureGroup has been removed successfully.
򐂰 -list displays information about the failure groups in an SSP:
$ failgrp -list
POOL_NAME: SSPpool
TIER_NAME: SYSTEM
FG_NAME FG_SIZE(MB) FG_STATE
MIRRA 51136 ONLINE
MIRRB 51136 ONLINE
$ failgrp -list -verbose
POOL_NAME:SSPpool

TIER_NAME:SYSTEM
FG_NAME:MIRRA
FG_SIZE(MB):51136
FG_STATE:ONLINE
POOL_NAME:SSPpool
TIER_NAME:SYSTEM
FG_NAME:MIRRB
FG_SIZE(MB):51136
FG_STATE:ONLINE
򐂰 -modify used together with the -attr flag modifies the specified attribute. The
following example shows how to rename a default failure group to a new
name:
$ failgrp -modify -fg Default -attr fg_name=MIRRA
Given attribute(s) modified successfully.
Note: Only two failure groups are currently supported in an SSP.
New chrepos command

This command replaces a disk, which is used as the repository disk by the SSP
cluster, with another disk. It is not new in VIOS Version 2.2.3. It was introduced in
Version 2.2.2, but it was enhanced to operate in a multinode cluster environment.
Example 4-5 shows how to use it. It can also be used for recovery if a repository
disk is lost. That procedure is shown next in 4.2.6, “SSP troubleshooting” on
page 63.
Example 4-5 Using the chrepos command

vioa1: [padmin]$ lspv | grep caavg_private
ssprepohdisk0 00f7a22ec86a91ac caavg_private active
vioa1: [padmin]$ chrepos -n SSP -r +ssprepohdisk1,-ssprepohdisk0
chrepos: Successfully modified repository disk or disks.
ssprepohdisk1 00f7a22e24d94c38 caavg_private active

4.2.6 SSP troubleshooting
Troubleshooting the SSP and CCA infrastructure is described. It is not in the
scope of this book to provide a full troubleshooting guide; therefore, we include
only a few hints where to look when there are problems with SSP. The following
commands might help you troubleshoot:
򐂰 lscluster -i (lscluster -i | egrep 'Node|Interface')
The command offers a quick overview of the cluster status and the status of
all interfaces, both network and disk heartbeating. See Example 4-6.
Example 4-6 SSP lscluster -i command

vioa1:/# lscluster -i | egrep 'Node|Interface'
Network/Storage Interface Query
Interface number 1, en6
Interface state = UP
Interface number 2, dpcom
Interface state = UP RESTRICTED AIX_CONTROLLED
Node UUID = 4e28a148-3c10-11e3-9177-e41f13fdcf7c
Node viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com
Node UUID = 2eddfec2-3c11-11e3-8be2-e41f13fdcf7c
Node UUID = adf248a8-3c11-11e3-8b0a-e41f13fdcf7c
򐂰 lscluster -m
This command lists the cluster node configuration information together with a
listing of contact IP addresses for individual nodes in the cluster. See
Example 4-7 on page 64.

Example 4-7 SSP lscluster -m command
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# lscluster -m
Calling node query for all nodes...
Node query number of nodes examined: 4
Node name: vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com

Cluster shorthand id for node: 1
UUID for node: a806fb6c-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
State of node: UP NODE_LOCAL
Smoothed rtt to node: 0
Mean Deviation in network rtt to node: 0
Number of clusters node is a member in: 1
CLUSTER NAME SHID UUID
SSP 0 a8035a02-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
SITE NAME SHID UUID
LOCAL 1 a8028ac8-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
Points of contact for node: 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Node name: vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com

UUID for node: 4e28a148-3c10-11e3-9177-e41f13fdcf7c
State of node: UP
SITE NAME SHID UUID
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface State Protocol Status SRC_IP->DST_IP
-------------------------------------------------------------------
tcpsock->02 UP IPv4 none 172.16.21.110->172.16.21.111
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Node name: viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com


UUID for node: 2eddfec2-3c11-11e3-8be2-e41f13fdcf7c
State of node: UP
SITE NAME SHID UUID
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Node name: viob2.pwrvc.ibm.com

UUID for node: adf248a8-3c11-11e3-8b0a-e41f13fdcf7c
State of node: UP
SITE NAME SHID UUID
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
򐂰 lscluster -d
This command shows list of disks currently configured in the cluster and their
status. See Example 4-8 on page 66.

Example 4-8 SSP lscluster -d command
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# lscluster -d
Cluster Name: SSP

sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
uUid : b17cf1df-5ba1-38b6-9fbf-f7b1618a9010
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK

sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
򐂰 lscluster -s
This command lists the cluster network statistics on the local node and errors
in the network (if they occur). See Example 4-9 on page 68.

Example 4-9 SSP lscluster -s command
vioa1:/# lscluster -s
Cluster Network Statistics:
pkts seen: 5410487 passed: 5410410

IP pkts: 5406267 UDP pkts: 130752
gossip pkts sent: 3174 gossip pkts recv: 9537
cluster address pkts: 0 CP pkts: 23201
bad transmits: 11 bad posts: 7
Bad transmit (overflow - disk ): 0
Bad transmit (overflow - tcpsock): 0
Bad transmit (host unreachable): 0
Bad transmit (net unreachable): 0
Bad transmit (network down): 3
Bad transmit (no connection): 0
short pkts: 0 multicast pkts: 63
cluster wide errors: 0 bad pkts: 0
dup pkts: 94 dropped pkts: 0
pkt fragments: 27 fragments queued: 0
fragments freed: 0
pkts pulled: 0 no memory: 0
rxmit requests recv: 4 requests found: 4
requests missed: 0 ooo pkts: 0
requests reset sent: 0 reset recv: 0
remote tcpsock send: 23028 tcpsock recv: 46080
rxmit requests sent: 0
alive pkts sent: 0 alive pkts recv: 0
ahafs pkts sent: 23 ahafs pkts recv: 22
nodedown pkts sent: 0 nodedown pkts recv: 0
socket pkts sent: 148 socket pkts recv: 154
cwide pkts sent: 1649 cwide pkts recv: 1819
socket pkts no space: 0 pkts recv notforhere: 40
Pseudo socket pkts sent: 0 Pseudo socket pkts recv: 0
Pseudo socket pkts dropped: 0
arp pkts sent: 11 arp pkts recv: 5
stale pkts recv: 3 other cluster pkts: 2
storage pkts sent: 1 storage pkts recv: 1
disk pkts sent: 72 disk pkts recv: 63
unicast pkts sent: 1735 unicast pkts recv: 428
out-of-range pkts recv: 0
IPv6 pkts sent: 0 IPv6 pkts recv: 70
IPv6 frags sent: 0 IPv6 frags recv: 0
Unhandled large pkts: 0
mrxmit overflow : 0 urxmit overflow: 0

򐂰 lsattr -El cluster0
This command lists local cluster IDs. See Example 4-10.
Example 4-10 SSp lsattr cluster command

vioa1:/# lsattr -El cluster0
clvdisk 7fbcc0ec-e0ec-9127-9d51-96384a17c9d7 Cluster repository
disk identifier True
node_uuid a806fb6c-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c OS image identifier
True
򐂰 lssrc -ls cthags

This command shows the status of Reliable Scalable Cluster Technology
(RSCT) cthags services. See Example 4-11.
Example 4-11 lssrc -ls cthags command

vioa1:/# lssrc -ls cthags
Subsystem Group PID Status
cthags cthags 8257746 active
5 locally-connected clients. Their PIDs:
8454168(IBM.ConfigRMd) 7340256(vio_daemon) 7864338(poold)
7012574(rmcd) 10682550(IBM.StorageRMd)
HA Group Services domain information:
Domain established by node 3
Number of groups known locally: 4
Number of Number of local
Group name providers providers/subscribers
gsPool.SSP 4 1 2
rmc_peers 4 1 0
IBM.ConfigRM 4 1 0
IBM.StorageRM.v1 4 1 0
Critical clients will be terminated if unresponsive
Dead Man Switch Disabled
򐂰 lssrc -ls vio_daemon

This command shows the status of the vio_daemon service. See
Example 4-12 on page 70.

Example 4-12 SSP vio_daemon
vvioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# lssrc -ls vio_daemon
Node ID: a806fb6c3c0e11e39cb8e41f13fdcf7c
Log File: /home/ios/logs/viod.log
VSP Socket: 0
AF family: 0
Port:
Addr:
VKE Kernel Socket: 4
VKE Daemon Socket: 5
Bound to : /home/ios/socks/vioke_unix
API Socket: 7
Bound to : /home/ios/socks/api_eve_unix
Cluster Name: SSP
Cluster ID: a8035a023c0e11e39cb8e41f13fdcf7c
PNN NODE ID: 00000000000000000000000000000000
DBN NODE ID: adf248a83c1111e38b0ae41f13fdcf7c
Pool Label: SSPpool
Pool VIO Name: D_E_F_A_U_L_T_061310
Pool ID: FFFFFFFFAC10156E0000000052681193
Pool State: UP
Pool Sync Status: COMPLETED
Repository Cluster Mode: EVENT
Repository Disk State: UP
DBN Role: Other
PNN Role: Other
򐂰 lssrc -ls IBM.StorageRM

This command shows the status of StorageRM (Resource Monitor) objects.
򐂰 lssrc -ls IBM.ConfigRM
This command shows the status of ConfigRM (Resource Monitor) objects.
򐂰 lscluster -c
This command lists the cluster configuration. See Example 4-13.
Example 4-13 SSP lscluster -c command

viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# lscluster -c
Cluster Name: SSP
Number of nodes in cluster = 4
Cluster ID for node vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com: 1
Primary IP address for node vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:
172.16.21.110

Cluster ID for node vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com: 2
Primary IP address for node vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com:
172.16.21.111
Cluster ID for node viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com: 3
Primary IP address for node viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com:
172.16.21.112
Cluster ID for node viob2.pwrvc.ibm.com: 4
Primary IP address for node viob2.pwrvc.ibm.com:
172.16.21.113
Number of disks in cluster = 2
Disk = sspmirrahdisk1 UUID =
b17cf1df-5ba1-38b6-9fbf-f7b1618a9010 cluster_major = 0 cluster_minor
= 3
Disk = ssprepohdisk0 UUID =
7fbcc0ec-e0ec-9127-9d51-96384a17c9d7 cluster_major = 0 cluster_minor
= 1
Multicast for site LOCAL: IPv4 228.16.21.110 IPv6 ff05::e410:156e
Communication Mode: unicast
Local node maximum capabilities: HNAME_CHG, UNICAST, IPV6, SITE
Effective cluster-wide capabilities: HNAME_CHG, UNICAST, IPV6, SITE
򐂰 cluster -status command (also with -verbose option)

򐂰 This command shows the cluster status. See Example 4-14.
Example 4-14 SSP cluster status

vioa1 [padmin]$ cluster -status -clustername SSP
Cluster Name State
SSP OK

viob1 8233-E8B02061AA6P 1 OK OK
viob2 8233-E8B02061AA6P 2 OK OK
vioa1 [padmin]$ cluster -status -clustername SSP -verbose
Cluster Name: SSP
Cluster Id: a8035a023c0e11e39cb8e41f13fdcf7c
Cluster State: OK
Repository Mode: EVENT
Number of Nodes: 4
Nodes OK: 4
Nodes DOWN: 0
Pool Name: SSPpool

Pool Id: FFFFFFFFAC10156E0000000052681193
Pool Mirror State: NOT_MIRRORED
Node Name: vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com

Node Id: a806fb6c3c0e11e39cb8e41f13fdcf7c
Node MTM: 8205-E6C0206A22ER
Node Partition Num: 1
Node State: OK
Node Repos State: OK
Node Upgrade Status: 2.2.3.0 ON_LEVEL
Node Roles:
Pool Name: SSPpool
Pool State: OK
Node Name: vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com

Node Id: 4e28a1483c1011e39177e41f13fdcf7c
Node MTM: 8205-E6C0206A22ER
Node State: OK
Node Roles:
Pool Name: SSPpool
Pool State: OK
Node Name: viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com

Node Id: 2eddfec23c1111e38be2e41f13fdcf7c
Node MTM: 8233-E8B02061AA6P
Node State: OK
Node Roles:
Pool Name: SSPpool
Pool State: OK
Node Name: viob2.pwrvc.ibm.com

Node Id: adf248a83c1111e38b0ae41f13fdcf7c
Node MTM: 8233-E8B02061AA6P
Node State: OK

Node Roles: DBN
Pool Name: SSPpool
Pool State: OK
򐂰 chrepos
This command replaces a disk, which is used as the repository disk by the
SSP cluster, with another disk. Example 4-15 shows how to use this
command to recover if you have a lost repository disk.
Example 4-15 Using chrepos to replace a failed repository disk

vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ lspv | grep caavg_private
ssprepohdisk1 00f7a22e24d94c38 caavg_private
active
Now, we unmapped ssprepohdisk1 (unmap all hosts operation on SAN

Volume Controller)
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com:/# lsvg -p caavg_private
0516-062 : Unable to read or write logical volume manager
record. PV may be permanently corrupted. Run diagnostics
vioa1: [padmin]$ chrepos -n SSP -r +ssprepohdisk0,-ssprepohdisk1

ERROR: return = -1 ssprepohdisk1 is not a valid repository device.
ERROR: return = -1, Could not read from cluster repository device
/dev/rssprepohdisk1: The specified device does not exist.
ERROR: Not a valid cluster header.
WARNING: importvg on ssprepohdisk1 failed.
WARNING: reducevg on ssprepohdisk1 failed.
ERROR: return = -1, Could not open cluster repository device
/dev/rssprepohdisk1: There is an input or output error.
WARNING: Failed to read repository data.
ERROR: return = -1, Could not open cluster repository device
/dev/rssprepohdisk1: There is an input or output error.
WARNING: Failed to write repository data.
WARNING: Unable to destroy repository disk ssprepohdisk1. Manual
intervention is required to clear the disk of cluster identifiers.
chrepos: Successfully modified repository disk or disks.
Replace operation succeeded. All is OK in the cluster now.

ssprepohdisk0 00f7a22ec86a91ac caavg_private
active
vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ lscluster -d
Cluster Name: SSP

sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK

sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
sspmirrahdisk1:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
Type : CLUSDISK
ssprepohdisk0:
State : UP
uDid :
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
Type : REPDISK
򐂰 snap caa
Use this command to collect all information about the underlying CAA cluster
component when sending information to IBM support.

򐂰 log /var/adm/ras/syslog.caa
The CAA subsystem logs its events to this file.
򐂰 /usr/lib/cluster/clras lsrepos
Use this command to list valid cluster repository disks. See Example 4-16.
Example 4-16 SSP clras

vioa1:/# /usr/lib/cluster/clras lsrepos
ssprepohdisk0 has a cluster repository signature.
Cycled 10 disks.
Found 1 cluster repository disk.
򐂰 /usr/lib/cluster/clras sfwinfo -d hdiskx displays the Universally Unique

Identifiers (UUIDs) for disk. See Example 4-17.
Example 4-17 SSP clras sfwinfo

vioa1:/# /usr/lib/cluster/clras sfwinfo -d sspmirrahdisk0
sspmirrahdisk0 8290a634-5275-645d-9203-478a0e090ee1
򐂰 /usr/lib/cluster/clras dumprepos shows the content of the repository disk.

See Example 4-18.
Example 4-18 SSP dumprepos

vioa1:/# /usr/lib/cluster/clras dumprepos
HEADER
Cluster ID: 0xa9c2d4c2
Name: SSP
UUID: a8035a02-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
Checksum: 0xa6c0
SHARED DISKS
Name Uuid
Udid
sspmirrahdisk1
b17cf1df-5ba1-38b6-9fbf-f7b1618a9010
33213600507680191026C400000000000002504214503IBMfcp
NODES
Name Uuid
N_gw Site_uuid
vioa1.pwrvc.ibm.com
a806fb6c-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c 1
a8028ac8-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c
gw_flag : 0

gw_ip
172.16.21.110
vioa2.pwrvc.ibm.com
4e28a148-3c10-11e3-9177-e41f13fdcf7c 1
gw_flag : 0
gw_ip
172.16.21.111
viob1.pwrvc.ibm.com
2eddfec2-3c11-11e3-8be2-e41f13fdcf7c 1
gw_flag : 0
gw_ip
172.16.21.112
viob2.pwrvc.ibm.com
adf248a8-3c11-11e3-8b0a-e41f13fdcf7c 1
gw_flag : 0
gw_ip
172.16.21.113
SITES
Name Shid Uuid
Prio
LOCAL 1
a8028ac8-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c 1
REPOS DISKS
Name Uuid
Udid
ssprepohdisk0
7fbcc0ec-e0ec-9127-9d51-96384a17c9d7
33213600507680191026C400000000000002304214503IBMfcp
MCAST ADDRS
IPv4 IPv6 Uuid
228.16.21.110 ff05::e410:156e
aa5566ec-3c0e-11e3-9cb8-e41f13fdcf7c

5
Chapter 5. Virtual I/O Server

Performance Advisor
This chapter describes how you can use the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)
Performance Advisor monitoring tool.
The VIOS Performance Advisor tool provides advisory reports based on key
performance metrics for various partition resources collected from the VIOS
environment.
This chapter includes the following sections:

򐂰 VIOS Performance Advisor concepts
򐂰 Using the VIOS Performance Advisor tool
򐂰 VIOS Performance Advisor reports

5.1 VIOS Performance Advisor concepts
The goal of the VIOS Performance Advisor is to have an expert system view of
the performance metrics already available to you. The VIOS Performance
Advisor helps you make assessments and recommendations based on the
expertise and experience available within the IBM Systems Performance Group.
The VIOS Performance Advisor tool provides advisory reports that are based on
key performance metrics of various partition resources collected from the VIOS
environment. Use this tool to provide health reports that have proposals for
making configurational changes to the VIOS environment and to identify areas
for further investigation.
VIOS Version 2.2, Fix Pack (FP) 24, Service Package (SP) 1 includes the
following enhancements for the VIOS Performance Advisor tool. However, the
development of new functions for virtualization is an ongoing process. Therefore,
it is best to visit the following website, where you can find more information about
the new and existing features:
http://bit.ly/1nctYzk
The primary focus of the VIOS Performance Advisor is to cover the following
VIOS technologies:
SEA Shared Ethernet Adapter
NPIV N_Port ID Virtualization
SSP Shared Storage Pool
The VIOS Performance Advisor has been enhanced to provide support for NPIV
and Fibre Channel, Virtual Networking, Shared Ethernet Adapter, and Shared
Storage Pool configurations.
5.2 Using the VIOS Performance Advisor tool

Starting with VIOS Version 2.2.2.0 or later, you can use the VIOS Performance
Advisor tool. By using the VIOS command-line interface (CLI), run the part
command.
VIOS Performance Advisor can be downloaded for free from the VIOS
Performance Advisor tool website, with VIOS Version 2.1.0.10, or later. By using
the VIOS CLI, run the vios_advisor command.
For in-depth information, see the website:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=aixtools159f1226

You can start the VIOS Performance Advisor tool in the following modes with
VIOS Version 2.2.2.0 or later:
򐂰 On-demand monitoring mode
򐂰 Postprocessing mode
5.2.1 On-demand monitoring mode

When you start the VIOS Performance Advisor tool in the on-demand monitoring
mode, provide the duration for which the tool must monitor the system in minutes.
The duration that you provide have to be between 10 - 60 minutes at the end of
which the tool generates the reports. During this time, samples are collected at
regular intervals of 15 seconds.
For example, to monitor the system for 30 minutes and generate a report, enter
the following command:
vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ part -i 10
part: Reports are successfully generated in vioa1_131031_11_34_12.tar
Note: If you use the part command, you must log in as the padmin role not
the root user.
Reports for the on-demand monitoring mode are successfully generated in the
vioa1_131031_11_34_12.tar file.
The output generated by the part command is saved in a .tar file, which is
created in the current working directory. The naming convention for files in the
on-demand monitoring mode is hostname_yymmdd_hhmmss.tar. In the
postprocessing mode, the file name is that of the input file with the file name
extension changed from a .nmon file to a .tar file.
The following example shows the tar file extracted from an output of the part
command:
# ls
images vioa1_131031_1134.nmon vios_advisorv2.xsl
popup.js vios_advisor.xsl
style.css vios_advisor_report.xml
The data is gathered in the vioa1_131031_1134.nmon file. If you want an .xls file
for Excel, you can run the nmon_analyser.
For in-depth information about the nmon_analyser, see the website:

http://bit.ly/1o2Yhbc
Chapter 5. Virtual I/O Server Performance Advisor 81

5.2.2 Postprocessing mode
When you start the VIOS Performance Advisor tool in postprocessing mode, you
must provide an input file. The tool tries to extract as much data as possible from
the file that you provide. Then, the tool generates reports. If the input file does not
have the required data for the tool to generate reports, an Insufficient Data
message is added to the relevant fields. For example, to generate a report based
on the data available in the vioa1_131031_1134.nmon file, enter the following
command as shown in Example 5-1.
Example 5-1 The part command based on the .nmon file

vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ part -f vioa1_131031_1134.nmon
part: Reports are successfully generated in vioa1_131031_1134.tar
Reports for the postprocessing mode are successfully generated in the

vioa1_131031_1134.tar file. Extract the vioa1_131031_1134.tar file, and
examine the vios_advisor_report.xml file in the extracted folder.
5.3 VIOS Performance Advisor reports

The VIOS Performance Advisor tool provides advisory reports that relate to the
performance of various subsystems in the VIOS environment.
5.3.1 Transferring the .xml file to a browser-capable PC

The output generated by the part command is saved in a .tar file that is created
in the current working directory.
The vios_advisor.xml report is part of the output .tar file with the other
supporting files. To view the generated report, complete the following example.
vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ ls -al vioa1_131031_11_34_12.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 padmin staff 337920 Oct 31 11:44 vioa1_131031_11_34_12.tar
vioa1:/home/padmin [padmin]$ oem_setup_env
# cd /home/padmin
# tar -xf vioa1_131031_11_34_12.tar
# ls
images vioa1_131031_1134.nmon vios_advisorv2.xsl
popup.js vios_advisor.xsl
style.css vios_advisor_report.xml

Then, download the vios_advisor.xml, and open the vios_advisor.xml file
using a browser.
5.3.2 Advisory reports

The following types of advisory reports are generated by the VIOS Performance
Advisor tool:
򐂰 System configuration advisory report
򐂰 CPU (central processing unit) advisory report
򐂰 Shared Processing Pool advisory report
򐂰 Memory advisory report
򐂰 Disk Drives advisory report
򐂰 Disk adapter advisory report
򐂰 I/O activities (disk and network) advisory report
򐂰 Shared Storage Pool advisory report
򐂰 Shared Ethernet Adapter advisory report
The Advisory report output is similar to Figure 5-1.
Figure 5-1 Advisory report information
Note: The Suggested value column (highlighted in Figure 5-1) shows changes
that are advised to decrease performance risks and impacts.

Figure 5-2 shows the icon definitions.
Figure 5-2 VIOS Performance Advisor icons
5.3.3 The system configuration advisory report

The System - Configuration advisory report consists of the information that
relates to the VIOS configuration, such as processor family, server model,
number of cores, frequency at which the cores are running, and the VIOS
version. The output is similar to Figure 5-3.
Figure 5-3 The system configuration advisory report

5.3.4 CPU (central processing unit) advisory report
The CPU or VIOS - Processor advisory report consists of the information that
relates to the processor resources, such as the number of cores assigned to the
VIOS and the processor consumption during the monitoring interval. The output
is similar to Figure 5-4.
Figure 5-4 CPU (central processing unit) advisory report
Note: In the VIOS - Processor table (Figure 5-4 on page 85) of the CPU
(central processing unit) advisory report, the status of the Variable Capacity
Weight is marked with a warning icon (exclamation point in a triangle). The
preferred practice is for the VIOS to have an increased priority of 129 - 255
when in uncapped shared processor mode. For the definitions for the warning
icons, see Figure 5-2 on page 84.
In Figure 5-5 on page 86, CPU capacity status indicates investigation required.
For the VIOSs in our lab environment, the preferred practice capacity settings are
used due to low performance requirements:
0.1 Processing units for desired entitled capacity
1 Desired virtual processor
255 Weight for uncapped processing mode

So, in this scenario, if a shortage of processing power occurs, all VIOSs still can
use up to the suggested value of 0.7 Processing Units (PrU) and up to a whole
physical processor. Therefore, the risk of this status is low and the impact is
higher.
Figure 5-5 CPU Capacity status in report
5.3.5 Shared Processing Pool advisory report

The System - Shared Processing Pool (SPP) advisory report consists of SPP
resource-related information, such as shared processor pool capacity for virtual
machines (VMs) running on the same processor pool. The output is similar to
Figure 5-6. If there is free CPU capacity, the maximum capacity that an
uncapped VM can use is the number of available virtual processors.
Figure 5-6 Shared Processing Pool advisory report

In Figure 5-7, SPP monitoring is not enabled. The Shared Processor Pool
monitoring feature must be enabled to view the statistics for an SPP.
Figure 5-7 Error on Shared Processing Pool monitoring
To enable the feature, access the partition properties for a specific VIOS on the
Hardware Management Console (HMC). On the General tab (Figure 5-8), select
Allow performance information collection.
Figure 5-8 Enable Shared Processor Pool monitoring

5.3.6 Memory advisory report
The VIOS - Memory advisory report consists of the information that relates to the
memory resources, such as the available free memory, paging space that is
allocated, paging rate, and pinned memory. The output is similar to Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-9 Memory advisory report
5.3.7 I/O activities (disk and network) advisory report

The VIOS - I/O Activity disk adapter advisory report consists of information that
relates to disk I/O activity:
򐂰 Average and peak I/O operations per second
򐂰 Network I/O activity
򐂰 Average and peak inflow and outflow I/O per second
The output is similar to Figure 5-10.
Figure 5-10 VIOS I/O Activity (disk and network) advisory report

5.3.8 Disk Drives advisory report
The VIOS - Disk Drives advisory report consists of the information that relates to
the disks attached to the VIOS, such as the I/O activities that are blocked and I/O
latencies. The output is similar to Figure 5-11.
Figure 5-11 VIOS - Disk Drives advisory report
5.3.9 Disk adapter advisory report

The VIOS - Disk Adapters advisory report consists of information that relates to
the Fibre Channel adapters that are connected to the VIOS. This report
illustrates the information that is based on the average I/O operations per
second, adapter utilization, and running speed. The output is similar to
Figure 5-12 on page 90.
Also, If you have NPIV clients, you can expand the NPIV items. The following
traffic-related statistics are shown:
򐂰 Average I/O per seconds
򐂰 I/Os blocked
򐂰 Traffic by individual worldwide port name (WWPN)

Figure 5-12 VIOS - Disk Adapters advisory report

5.3.10 Shared Storage Pool advisory report
The VIOS - Shared Storage Pool advisory report consists of the information that
relates to the SSP utilization based on the pool size thresholds, and per client
pool utilization. The output is similar to Figure 5-13.
Figure 5-13 VIOS - Shared Storage Pool advisory report
5.3.11 Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) advisory report

The VIOS - Shared Ethernet Adapters advisory report consists of the information
that relates to SEAs, such as the count and utilization. The output is similar to
Figure 5-14.
Figure 5-14 VIOS - Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) advisory report
If you expand the SEA column, the following detail is shown (Figure 5-15 on
page 92):
򐂰 SEA utilization based on the physical interfaces
򐂰 Arbitrate (baudrate) and traffic information
򐂰 Per-client SEA traffic information
򐂰 The number of SEA adapters configured
򐂰 The utilization metrics, such as average send and receive
򐂰 The SEA peak send and receive

Figure 5-15 Expanded Shared Ethernet Adapters (SEA) status

Note: Physical LargeReceive is the feature that enables coalescing received
packets into a large packet before passing them to the next layer for enhanced
performance. The feature is enabled by default and it is also known as TCP
segment aggregation. The adapter hardware offload capability can complete
data aggregation faster than the operating system software. This feature can
help you improve receive performance.
The following commands enable the LargeReceive function for physical device
ent1:
chdev -l en1 -a state=down
chdev -l ent1 -a large_receive=yes (if hardware supports)
chdev -l en1 -a state=up

6
Chapter 6. PowerVM Live Partition

Mobility
PowerVM Live Partition Mobility has two major enhancements:
򐂰 6.1, “PowerVM Server Evacuation” on page 96
򐂰 6.2, “Settings to improve Live Partition Mobility performance” on page 97

6.1 PowerVM Server Evacuation
Use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or
later, to perform a server evacuation operation. This process is used to move all
migration-capable logical partitions (LPARs) from one system to another. Any
upgrade or maintenance operations can be performed after all the partitions are
migrated and the source system is powered off.
You can migrate all the migration-capable AIX, Linux, and IBM i partitions from
the source server to the destination server by running the following command
from the HMC command line:
migrlpar -o m -m source_server -t target_server --all
The command finishes silently and the virtual machines (VMs) are in the target
server. If the target server has partitions that were configured before the
evacuation start, the moved LPARs will coexist with the previous partitions. To roll
back the LPARs to the source server, move them individually using the HMC.
Important: The following conditions apply for a partition that is considered

migration capable:
򐂰 The source server must not have any inbound or outbound migration
operations in progress.
򐂰 The destination server must not have any outbound migration operations in
progress.
򐂰 The destination server must have enough resources to fit the logical
partitions to be migrated, at least for the minimum requirements shown in
their profiles.
򐂰 The HMC must be at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or later.
To stop the migration of all the migration-capable AIX, Linux, and IBM i partitions,
run the following command from the HMC command line:
migrlpar –o s -m source_server --all
This command cancels any migration currently in progress.

6.2 Settings to improve Live Partition Mobility
performance
You can improve the partition mobility performance by installing the latest
available firmware, HMC, and VIOS software levels on both the source and target
mover service partitions.
At the time of writing this book, the latest available levels are HMC 7.7.8.0 and
VIOS 2.2.1. Firmware levels relate to each server and can vary depending on the
model.
Link: For more information about software and firmware levels or to download
the latest codes, go to this website:
http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral
The following tables describe the VIOS Processing Unit resources that are
suggested to achieve maximum throughput. These resources are in addition to
the resources already assigned to the VIOS to handle the existing virtual I/O
resource requirements, using a 10 Gb network adapter for partition mobility.
Table 6-1 lists the suggested resources in addition to the configured resources
for the VIOSs for a single migration to achieve maximum throughput. These extra
resources are only needed on the Mover Service Partitions (MSPs).
Table 6-1 VIOS requirement for a single migration

Single migration
Server family POWER7 POWER7+
Dedicated processing units >3 >2
Virtual processors >3 >2
Using 1 Gb network adapter or near 100% of 1 1

utilization using 10 Gb network adapter
Required additional memory when using 10 Gb Add 1 GB of RAM in addition to the

network adapter previous requirements.
Chapter 6. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility 97

Table 6-2 lists suggested resources in addition to the configured resources for
the VIOSs for up to 16 concurrent migrations to achieve maximum throughput.
These extra resources are only needed on the Mover Service Partitions. Each
Mover Service Partition only supports up to eight concurrent migrations. To reach
16 concurrent migrations, you need two Mover Service Partitions on both the
source and target systems.
Table 6-2 VIOS requirement for up to 16 concurrent migrations (8 for each MSP)
Up to 16 concurrent migrations - eight for each Mover Service Partition
POWER7 POWER7+
Dedicated processing units 4 3
Virtual processors 4 3
Using 1 Gb network adapter or near 100% of 1 1

utilization using 10 Gb network adapter
Required additional memory when using 10 Gb Add 1 GB of RAM in addition to the

network adapter previous requirements.
In addition to these suggested settings for memory and processing units, there
are other settings for dedicated network adapters. These other settings do not
apply to virtual network adapters in the VMs, but they can be applied to the
VIOSs. Follow these steps:
1. Enable the Large Send Offload and Large Receive Offload options on all
network devices that are involved in partition mobility. This setting is enabled,
by default, on all network adapters that support this feature. If you need to
enable this setting, manually run these commands on the VIOS
(Example 6-1).
Example 6-1 Enabling Large Send Offload and Large Receive Offload
lsdev -dev ent0 -attr | grep large
large_receive no Enable receive TCP segment aggregation True
large_send no Enable transmit TCP segmentation offload True
chdev -dev ent0 -attr large_send=yes

ent0 changed
chdev -dev ent0 -attr large_receive=yes

ent0 changed
lsdev -dev ent0 -attr | grep large

large_receive yes Enable receive TCP segment aggregation True
large_send yes Enable transmit TCP segmentation offload True

2. Set the tcp_sendspace = 524288 and tcp_recspace = 524288 parameters in
the tunables file by running these commands on the VIOS (Example 6-2).
Example 6-2 Setting sendspace and recspace tunable parameters

optimizenet -list | grep space | grep tcp
tcp_recvspace 16K 16K 16K 4K 8E-1 byte C
tcp_sendspace 16K 16K 16K 4K 8E-1 byte C
optimizenet -perm -set tcp_recvspace=524288

Setting tcp_recvspace to 524288
Setting tcp_recvspace to 524288 in nextboot file
Change to tunable tcp_recvspace, will only be effective for future connections
optimizenet -perm -set tcp_sendspace=524288

Setting tcp_sendspace to 524288
Setting tcp_sendspace to 524288 in nextboot file
Change to tunable tcp_sendspace, will only be effective for future connections
optimizenet -list | grep space | grep tcp

tcp_recvspace 512K 16K 512K 4K 8E-1 byte C
tcp_sendspace 512K 16K 512K 4K 8E-1 byte C
3. Enable the Jumbo Frames option if it is supported by the environment by

running these commands on the VIOS (Example 6-3).
Example 6-3 Enabling Jumbo Frames

lsdev -dev ent0 -attr | grep jumbo
jumbo_frames no Enable jumbo frames support True
chdev -dev ent0 -attr jumbo_frames=yes

ent0 changed
lsdev -dev ent0 -attr | grep jumbo

jumbo_frames yes Enable jumbo frames support True
Chapter 6. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility 99

Abbreviations and acronyms
ABI application binary interface CHRP Common Hardware
AC Alternating Current Reference Platform
ACL access control list CLI command-line interface
AFPA Adaptive Fast Path CLIs command line interfaces

Architecture CLVM Concurrent LVM
AIO Asynchronous I/O COD Capacity Upgrade on
AIX Advanced Interactive Demand
Executive CPU central processing unit
APAR authorized program analysis CRC cyclic redundancy check
report CSM Cluster Systems
API application programming Management
interface CUoD Capacity Upgrade on
ARP Address Resolution Protocol Demand
ASMI Advanced System CVUT Czech Technical University
Management Interface DCM Dual Chip Module
BFF Backup File Format DES Data Encryption Standard
BIND Berkeley Internet Name DGD Dead Gateway Detection
Domain
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration
BIST Built-In Self-Test Protocol
BLV Boot Logical Volume DLPAR dynamic LPAR
BOOTP Bootstrap Protocol DMA direct memory access
BOS Base Operating System DMS Deadman switch
BSD Berkeley Software Distribution DNS Domain Name System
CA certificate authority DR dynamic reconfiguration
CAA Cluster Aware AIX DRM dynamic reconfiguration
CATE Certified Advanced Technical manager
Expert DVD digital versatile disc
CD compact disc DWO Dynamic Workload Optimizer
CD-R compact disc recordable EC EtherChannel
CD-ROM compact-disc read-only ECC error correction code
memory
EOF end-of-file
CDE Common Desktop
Environment EPOW emergency power-off warning
CEC central electronics complex ERRM Event Response resource
manager

ESS IBM Enterprise Storage IVM Integrated Virtualization
Server® Manager
F/C Feature Code JFS journaled file system
FC Fibre Channel L1 level 1
FC_AL Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop L2 level 2
FDX Full Duplex L3 level 3
FLOP Floating Point Operation LA Link Aggregation
FRU field-replaceable unit LACP Link Aggregation Control
FTP File Transfer Protocol Protocol
GDPS® IBM Geographically LAN local area network

Dispersed Parallel Sysplex™ LDAP Lightweight Directory Access
GID group ID Protocol
GPFS™ IBM General Parallel File LED light-emitting diode

System LMB Logical Memory Block
GUI Graphical User Interface LPAR logical partition
HACMP™ IBM High Availability Cluster LPARs least one of the partitions
Multiprocessing LPP licensed program product
HBA host bus adapter LU logical unit
HMC Hardware Management LUN logical unit number
Console
LUs logical units
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
LV logical volume
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
LVCB Logical Volume Control Block
Hz hertz
LVM Logical Volume Manager
I/O input/output
MAC Media Access Control
IBM International Business
Machines MBps megabytes per second
ID identifier MCM multiple chip module
IDE Integrated Device Electronics ML Maintenance Level
IEEE Institute of Electrical and MP Multiprocessor

Electronics Engineers MPIO Multipath I/O
IP Internet Protocol MTU maximum transmission unit
IPAT IP address takeover Mbps megabits per second
IPL initial program load NA not available
IPMP IP Multipathing NFS Network File System
ISV independent software vendor NIB Network Interface Backup
ITSO International Technical NIM Network Installation
Support Organization Management
NIMOL NIM on Linux

NPIV N_Port Identifier Virtualization RBAC role-based access control
NVRAM nonvolatile random access RCP Remote Copy
memory RDAC Redundant Disk Array
N_PORT Node Port Controller
ODM Object Data Manager RHEL Red Hat Enterprise Linux
OS operating system RIO remote input/output
OSPF Open Shortest Path First RIP Routing Information Protocol
PCI Peripheral Component RISC reduced instruction-set
Interconnect computer
PCI Express iPeripheral Component RMC Resource Monitoring and
Interconnect Express Control
PEX Performance Explorer RPC Remote Procedure Call
PIC Pool Idle Count RPL Remote Program Loader
PID process ID RPM Red Hat Package Manager
PKI public key infrastructure RSA Rivest-Shamir-Adleman
PLM Partition Load Manager algorithm
PMU Performance Monitoring Unit RSCT Reliable Scalable Cluster

Technology
POST power-on self-test
RSH Remote Shell
POWER Performance Optimization
with Enhanced Risc SAN storage area network
(Architecture) SCSI Small Computer System
PPC Physical Processor Interface
Consumption SDD Subsystem Device Driver
PPFC Physical Processor Fraction SDDPCM Subsystem Device Driver
Consumed Path Control Module
PTF program temporary fix SEA Shared Ethernet Adapter
PTX Performance Toolbox SMIT System Management
PURR Processor Utilization Interface Tool
Resource Register SMP symmetric multiprocessor
PV physical volume SMS system management services
PVID Port Virtual LAN Identifier SMT simultaneous multithreading
PrU Processing Units SP Service Processor
QoS quality of service SPOT Shared Product Object Tree
RAID Redundant Array of SPP Shared Processing Pool
Independent Disks SRC System Resource Controller
RAM random access memory SRN service request number
RAS reliability, availability, and SSA Serial Storage Architecture
serviceability
SSH Secure Shell
Abbreviations and acronyms 103

SSL Secure Sockets Layer
SSP Shared Storage Pool
SUID Set User ID
SVC SAN Volume Controller
SWMA Software Maintenance
agreement
TCP/IP Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol
TL Technology Level
TSA IBM Tivoli® System
Automation
UDF Universal Disk Format
UDID Universal Disk Identification
VG volume group
VGDA Volume Group Descriptor
Area
VGSA Volume Group Status Area
VIOS Virtual I/O Server
VIPA virtual IP address
VLAN virtual local area network

Related publications
The publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a
more detailed discussion of the topics covered in this book.
IBM Redbooks
For information about ordering these publications, see “Help from IBM” on
page 108. Note that some of the documents referenced here might be available
in softcopy only.
򐂰 IBM Power Systems HMC Implementation and Usage Guide, SG24-7491
򐂰 Integrated Virtualization Manager for IBM Power Systems Servers,
REDP-4061
򐂰 IBM PowerVM Best Practices, SG24-8062
򐂰 IBM Systems Director VMControl Implementation Guide on IBM Power
Systems, SG24-7829
򐂰 Power Systems Memory Deduplication, REDP-4827
򐂰 PowerVM Migration from Physical to Virtual Storage, SG24-7825
򐂰 IBM PowerVM Virtualization Active Memory Sharing, REDP-4470
򐂰 A Practical Guide for Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC), SG24-6615
Other publications
These publications are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 The following types of documentation are located on the Internet at this
website:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp
– User guides
– System management guides
– Application programmer guides

– All command reference volumes
– File reference
– Technical reference volumes used by application programmers
򐂰 Detailed documentation about the PowerVM feature and the Virtual I/O
Server is available at this website:
http://bit.ly/1sUGhNY
򐂰 IBM eServer iSeries Performance Tools for iSeries, SC41-5340
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager Data Collectors for UNIX and
Linux User’s Guide, SC32-1556
Online resources
These websites are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 For further details of supported machine model types, visit this website:
򐂰 The latest configuration file for a Power enterprise pool is available on the IBM
Capacity on Demand website:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/cod/offerings.html
򐂰 IBM Business Partners
http://www.ibm.com/services/econfig/announce/index.html
򐂰 IBM internal website
http://w3-03.ibm.com/transform/worksmart/docs/e-config.html
򐂰 Further configuration examples and details are provided in the Power
Systems Information Center under the POWER7 Systems section:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5
򐂰 Upgrade from previous version (updateios command) and update packages
can be downloaded from IBM Fix Central:
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral
򐂰 For storage hardware that is supported in VIOS, see this website:
http://bit.ly/1oIPmLS
򐂰 VIOS information:
http://bit.ly/1nctYzk

򐂰 VIOS Performance Advisor:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=aixtools159f1226
򐂰 Capacity upgrade on demand (COD) activations:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/cod/activations.html
򐂰 COD SSP information:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/cod/offerings.html
򐂰 Hardware Management Console (HMC) interaction script:
http://www.the-welters.com/professional/scripts/hmcMenu.txt
򐂰 IBM Redbooks publications:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/
򐂰 IBM Systems information center: Power Systems Virtual I/O Server and
Integrated Virtualization Manager commands:
http://bit.ly/RUvXcU
򐂰 IBM System Planning Tool:
http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/tools/systemplanningtool/
򐂰 IBM wikis:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/dashboard.action
– AIX Wiki - Performance Monitoring Documentation:
http://bit.ly/1pd2WVp
– nmon analyzer tool:
http://bit.ly/Tum730
򐂰 Virtual I/O Server monitoring wiki:
http://bit.ly/1jsuC7S
򐂰 The nmon tool:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/nmon
򐂰 IBM Systems Information Centers:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/eserver/?tocNode=int_17
򐂰 PowerVM:
http://bit.ly/1qVbaGl
򐂰 Architecting for power management: The IBM POWER7 approach:
http://bit.ly/1o6e2xV
Related publications 107

򐂰 SSD and Powerpath information:
http://bit.ly/1jDqyTR
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Monitoring Information Center:
http://bit.ly/1o6e8Wm
Help from IBM

IBM Support and downloads
ibm.com/support
IBM Global Services

ibm.com/services

IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements
(0.2”spine)
0.17”<->0.473”
90<->249 pages
Back cover ®
IBM PowerVM Enhancements

What is New in 2013
®
PowerVP and mobile IBM Power Systems servers coupled with IBM PowerVM technology are
CoD activations designed to help clients build a dynamic infrastructure, helping to reduce INTERNATIONAL
explained
costs, manage risk, and improve service levels. TECHNICAL
IBM PowerVM delivers industrial-strength virtualization for IBM AIX, IBM i, SUPPORT
Shared Storage Pool
and Linux environments on IBM POWER processor-based systems. IBM ORGANIZATION
PowerVM V2.2.3 is enhanced to continue its leadership in cloud computing
enhancements environments. Throughout the chapters of this publication, you will learn
explained about the following topics:
򐂰 New management and performance tuning software products for
PowerVM solutions. Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) Performance Advisor has
BUILDING TECHNICAL
Power Integrated been enhanced to provide support for N_Port Identifier Virtualization INFORMATION BASED ON
Facility for Linux (NPIV) and Fibre Channel, Virtual Networking and Shared Ethernet PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
described Adapter, and Shared Storage Pool configurations. IBM Power
Virtualization Performance (PowerVP) is introduced as a new visual
performance monitoring tool for Power Systems servers. IBM Redbooks are developed by
򐂰 The scalability, reliability, and performance enhancements introduced
the IBM International Technical
with the latest versions of the VIOS, IBM PowerVM Live Partition
Support Organization. Experts
Mobility, and the Hardware Management Console (HMC). As an
from IBM, Customers and
example, this book goes through the Shared Storage Pool
Partners from around the world
improvements that include mirroring of the storage pool, dynamic
create timely technical
contraction of the storage pool, dynamic disk growth within the storage
information based on realistic
pool, and scaling improvements.
scenarios. Specific
recommendations are provided
This book is intended for experienced IBM PowerVM users who want to to help you implement IT
enable 2013 IBM PowerVM virtualization enhancements for Power Systems. solutions more effectively in
It is intended to be used as a companion to the following publications: your environment.
For more information:

ibm.com/redbooks
SG24-8198-00 ISBN 0738439460

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Front cover

IBM PowerVM Enhancements

PowerVP and mobile CoD activations

Shared Storage Pool

Power Integrated Facility

IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

First Edition (May 2014)

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2014.

Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 3. Power Integrated Facility for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. iii

Chapter 4. Virtual I/O Server 2.2.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 5. Virtual I/O Server Performance Advisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter 6. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Abbreviations and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

iv IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

2-1 IBM PowerVP data flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. vii

1-1 Key features of IBM PowerVC editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. ix

2-1 IBM i agent installation check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xi

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xiii

AIX® Parallel Sysplex® PowerHA®

xiv IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. xv

Guillermo Corti is an IT Specialist at IBM Argentina. He has been with IBM

Sylvain Delabarre is a Certified IT Specialist at the IBM Client and Power

Ho Jin Kim is a Senior Power Systems System Service Representative in IBM

Ondrej Plachy is an IT System Engineer in Comparex CZ, s.r.o. He has 18 years

Marcos Quezada is a Consulting IT Specialist at IBM Latin America Advanced

xvi IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

The project that produced this publication was managed by:

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Now you can become a published author, too!

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xviii IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. 1

IBM PowerVC is built on OpenStack. OpenStack is open source software that

IBM PowerVC is available in two editions:

Table 1-1 Key features of IBM PowerVC editions

2 IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

1.3 Power Integrated Facility for Linux

1.4 VIOS 2.2.3

1.6 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility

Partition mobility performance is improved by installing the latest available

1.7 HMC feature updates

4 IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

1.7.1 Considerations and prerequisites for HMC

The new graphical user interface (GUI) functionality is automatically disabled.

1.7.2 HMC and Power Enterprise Pool interaction

1.7.3 HMC and IBM PowerVC interaction

6 IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization

It assists you in the following way:

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved. 7

IBM PowerVP offers these features:

8 IBM PowerVM 2013 Enhancements

PowerVP has these prerequisites:

򐂰 AIX operating system releases 6.1 and 7.1 are supported.

Chapter 2. IBM Power Virtualization Performance 9